1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time. I think something I’ve struggled with this semester is time management. I went into this Fall semester with a goal of staying ahead and completing my work far enough in advance that I wouldn't worry about any deadlines or feeling the all-too-familiar panic during crunch time when multiple assignments are due. Even though I always managed to get my assignments turned in on time, I completely failed at my goal of staying ahead. What’s worse, after each Friday came and went, I always reset my goal to do better the next week. It was a cycle of failure.
2) Tell us what you learned from it. This semester, I really spent a lot of time focusing on my habits and decision-making processes. I’ve also been taking a marketing class this semester, so the assignments about consumer behavior had me reflecting on my own behaviors to get a better understand of myself. I realized I always had an excuse as to why I procrastinated, but when I inspected the reasoning, I found they were just lame empty excuses that I made up to try to feel better about my actions. Really, I just didn’t feel like doing the work and didn’t prioritize the goal I set for myself.
3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were just a few months ago? I think the hardest thing about failure is recognizing when it occurs and owning up to it. No one wants to admit when they’re wrong or that they let themselves down because in order to do so, you really must inspect your own behavior to find out why it happened. Of course, this is more so for personal failures, things we have control over. I have recently begun to embrace failure and I no longer see it as a negative thing. While I’d prefer to succeed in all the goals I’ve set for myself, that is just unrealistic. I’ve set many goals for myself this year and I’ve succeed in more than I have failed. So instead of wallowing in this one failure, I’d rather find the root cause of it to try not to repeat it again and then modify a new goal from it. I think this new outlook has been strengthened by this course because we read and learned about so many different successful people that overcame a plethora of failures before they reached their ultimate success story. Risk and optimism are vital to obtaining success. You have to aim big if you want to get big. You won’t achieve anything great if you run from work and the possibility of falling flat on your face. Actually, you should expect to fail. You learn a lot by analyzing what you did wrong.
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