My Greatest Failure Research Paper

Growing up in a large family and a busy lifestyle as an athlete has shaped me into who I have become today. My life has been about being the best student, athlete, teammate, brother, son, employee and husband I can possibly be. Being involved in various sports with several different teams, going away to school, getting married have all been big parts of life for me some newer than others but all big in their own way. My life has always been about fighting through adversity to achieve a common goal at no matter what the cost getting to the finish line is something that must be achieved no matter the circumstances. Growing up I was always taught to work hard to achieve your goals no matter what it takes quitting is not an option. If you get yourself in to something and commit it’s up to you to finish what you started. Growing up in a big household with four brothers and sisters there was never a dull moment as something was always happening. It was enjoyable to grow up with so many personalities in my house it taught me how to deal with different issues that others face each day, and to always take others into consideration when making decisions. Being the second youngest in the family I saw my older siblings move out and took it upon myself to be the role-model for my youngest sister and show her that if you make smart and rational decisions good things come from doing so.

Everyone has failed at something in their life. You might think that failure doesn't strengthen you at all, but it does. The three main reasons why failure strengthens you are that failure gives you room to improve, it helps you learn, and it helps you later in life.

I believe every flaw I have is to teach me a lesson. A flaw can be one’s Achilles heel, that can hold one back from accomplishing great things. But, in retrospect I think understanding my flaw and using it in my favor- creates a successful and positive environment. For this assignment, I chose my flaw of being a perfectionist. Although, my perfectionism hurdles many challenges my way, it teaches me determination, perseverance, ambition and to be a hard worker.

One time I experienced failure was when I was trying out for an indoor field hockey league. The field hockey league had three different teams, the academy (the lowest), elite (the middle team), and high-performance (the highest). I was very eager to begin the indoor field hockey season and I had high hopes that I would make the highest team. On the day of tryouts, I had a major case of butterflies in my stomach but I was still eager to start the season. However, as soon as I stepped on the field the nerves began to take over my whole body and I became quite timid. I did ok in the skills portion but when it came to the scrimmage I chickened out a bit. The girls trying out were big and strong and had amazing skills and I instantly began to think I was

One failure in my life occurred when I tried out for my high school’s softball team. I had been playing softball for most of my life, and there would only be fifteen players trying out, enough to create a team without cutting anyone, so I got onto the team but found that I wouldn’t have a place on the field because another player occupied my position. So I spent the season figuratively on the bench rather than playing the game I loved.

Call it failure to capitalize on an opportunity or failure to commit 100% effort to my team; both would be true and both failures lead to lessons learned my junior year on the high school varsity soccer team. From the time I was little, with my dad as my coach, success came easily and failure was a concept not easily grasped. Playing on the JV team my first two years of high school was pretty much a given, and in hindsight, I realize how valued I was on the team. I started most of the games both freshman and sophomore year and played a significant amount. As my junior year was approaching, I knew this was not going to be the case. Desperately wanting to make the team, lots of training and hard work was how a majority of my summer free time

I was an incoming freshman, two weeks prior to my first day of high school, and I was terrified. I knew that I loved the sport of football, however I had heard stories from my brother about how tough Stepinac’s freshman football coach was. Everything that I was told was true. One of the coaches great lessons that he taught me was that a hardworking disciplined team is typically more successful than a team that has all of the talent in the world, but is not disciplined and does not work hard. That summer was the hardest that I had ever worked up to that point to start in a football game. The hard work never paid off, and I left at the end of that season defeated. I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t fast enough, and I wasn’t strong enough. I had only played in two of the games, one, for a snap when

Screwed. That is the one word he would use, screwed. Sure things could be worse. He could be lying in a ditch dead or maybe in a shipping crate bound for Africa. Even still this was not much better. He loathed his job and everything to do with it. So a required work “party” was not how he wanted to spend his night. He considered “getting sick” but decided against it. Besides how bad it could be? He wouldn’t have to stay long and there would be free food. He decided he could bare it. Little did he know that his decision had just won him a sentence of twenty-five to life.

Towards the end of my freshman year of high school I was getting ready for school cheer tryouts. I felt confident with myself because I was doing my best. I practiced every night before tryouts. During tryouts I wasn't nervous at all and I felt confident in myself. When I went to look at the list that night I walked up and didn't see my name, I was devastated. I thought that it was my biggest failure in life ever but it wasn't, it was actually one of the biggest life lessons I've learned.

Being poor means you barely have enough money for the luxuries in life; you can only afford the absolute necessities in life. Being middle class means you can afford to splurge here and there on luxuries. Being wealthier means you live a life of opulence, and you are not concerned with money in the slightest. I do not live an extravagant live nor do I live a life devoid of luxuries. Most of my significant events in my life do not have money involved in them. Whenever I have money I carelessly splurge it on things I will never come to use or I treat myself to candy with it. I loathe saving money in such a manner it drives me insane whenever I save more than a couple dollars. I choose Katie Nolan for this section because she is the polar opposite

Have you ever had a bad grade and improve on it? I have, but being in sports and having family issues get in the way of that. If your in sports, there are other ways for you to get your work done, like in school or after practice.

I experienced failure as an assistant coach of the girl’s basketball team at Bethany Christian Middle School. Every loss we had weighed heavily on my shoulders, making me disappointed in myself, both as a coach and as a mentor to the girls on the team. I had the mindset that a coach’s job was solely to win, and I was doing the exact opposite of that. This negativity would radiate from my tone, body language, and overall demeanor. Eventually, it would spread to my players, and I could see how not enjoyable both the games and practices were becoming. It took me till about halfway through the season to look at this situation from a different perspective. It was then that I realized my true failure was not in failing to coach these girls to victory

I remember every detail of the first time I ever really failed. I was 15. It was the Ohio High School State Swimming Championship and I was seeded first in the state in the 50 freestyle as a sophomore. By a lot. At one point during that season, I had the fastest high school split in the country. It was in the bank and practically a sure thing. I would win and earn my first state title as well as have a concrete shot at breaking the state record. What was supposed to be one of the best performances of my life (and debatably the smoothest sailing big-time-win) turned from excitement to complete despair. I lost the race by three one hundredths of a second and she and I both broke the state record. A fingernail would have made a difference. To this day I still think about that race and that minuscule amount of time causing my first real heartbreak. In the blink of an eye, I had the biggest failure of my life. For a year, I beat myself up over those three one hundredths. I was learning one of the best lessons any athlete, performer, or accomplished human being needs to learn.

My first year in high school ended without me achieving my goal and this only meant one thing to me, "I was not good enough". During the summer I found a football school very close to my house, I quickly enrolled. Determined to get better I ensured I never missed a day of practice, making every minute count.

Math have been my academic struggles because I tend not to understand the concept. Not only the subject but also the timing on tests and quizzes have also influenced me. During tests in my math class, I do not get enough time to finish my work which cause me to have a lower grade even though I sometimes know what I’m doing. Test timing makes me struggles in my math class and I have to find a way in overcoming that. Another academic struggle is English since it's my second language. I always find it difficult to write essays without me thinking through. I can do very well in a test with no timing because I gets more time to think through the work. For example, during my ACT test, I knew most of the questions on the English part but time