Overcoming Failure Research Paper

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.

A time that I experienced failure was when i failed my Algebra II class for first semester. My biggest error was that I didn’t retake my quizzes that i failed when i had the chance too. The first 3 months i didnt really tried, I would tell myself that I had a lot of time for the semester to end. However, i regretted it when i found out that i only had a few weeks for the semester to end. I stressed out the last weeks, I couldn’t go to sleep in the night. I would keep thinking of my grade and how i was going to fail the class. I knew that colleges were gonna see my grades for this year, my junior year. I really want to go to college, I want to make my parents proud. The last weeks, i did everything that i could. I did all the missing homework, and I tried to

I failed to reach the top of the rock climbing wall on the playground, and as a result, I have strived even harder to reach the peak of success in everything I do. Instead of becoming discouraged and disappointed in myself, I found a way to improve myself for my next challenge. Learning from my mistakes has molded me into an improved person while giving me the motivation to keep pushing forward. Failure has taught me the importance of learning from your errors and trying again, no matter how difficult it may be. Without lessons like these, I would not be the motivated, independent person that I am today. I will continue to fail and try again until I achieve my goal of reaching the

When I look at the word failure I didn’t see success. But that slowly changed as I read the book What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain Chapter four. Bain, for me and I’m sure many other, have changed our view point on failure being a bad thing. He instead expressed failure as an “opportunity to learn something.” (121) As infants we grow and develop, we learn to walk by falling down a couple hundred times, and we learn to speak by babbling. By trying to walk, and trying to talk, we may fail at first. As an infant, you cannot give up when you are face to face with failure. You must get up and try again to learn. In the book, What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain he uses people’s experiences and research to explain why failure is an opportunity to learn something new, rather than seeing failure as something bad. He asserts “people who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge failures, even to embrace them, and to explore and learn from them.” (100) Failure is important. If we did not get up and try again as infants, we would not be where we are today.

The short story, The Right to Fail by William Zinsser, explains how it is acceptable to fail and learn from one's mistakes and to not go down the path society has made socially acceptable. Zinner has a positive outlook on the concept of failing, he explains, “Success can be dangerous- you feel you know it all. I’ve learned a  great deal from my failures.” As life goes on, everyone may not succeed the same way or even succeed at everything they attempt to do, but it is important to learn from mistakes and continue moving forward and to find the path that works for you. Trying new things and failing or succeeding can open new doors to something better.

Failure is a part of life. While many see failure as a negative thing, I have started to see it as a situation that can make you a better person. Failure drives me to never make that mistake again. I first realized this when I took my first AP class and AP exam and received a score of 2. This journey all started sophomore year when I took AP World History. I quickly learned that I needed to actually read and take notes to be able to succeed in the class. It took a few poor grades on essays and tests for me to understand this. Despite this new revelation, I still struggled in the class. When it came time to start reviewing and preparing for the exam, I put an immense amount of effort, but not as hard as I should’ve been. Exam day came and

I strongly believe that every failure is a learning experience that should be taken as a lesson to grow from. I previously attended a 4 year university that became too much for me; attending school full-time, working 35 hours per week while trying to figure out what it is that I really wanted out of this university experience. I ended up failing most of my classes, putting my health at risk drowned by the tremendous amount of stress and just wanted to completely give up. Looking for a fresh start I decided to leave my university, and attend Norwalk Community College. Though this decision created self-doubt in the beginning, it soon came to my realization that it was the best decision I ever made. Immersed in an environment full of positive people, I was able to grow from the experience.

My first failure discouraged me to the point where, I felt like I would never reach an advanced math level again. The lack of self-confidence that resulted from my sub-par math scores soon began to negatively affect some of my other classes. I quickly realized that the trend had to stop. I worked diligently to achieve what, at the time, seemed unattainable. My change in the outlook of my repeated failures helped me to finally succeed. Throughout the course of the last two years, I have grown more self-aware in my study habits. I push myself even harder when I think I have done the best I can.

Failure is not an option. That was instilled upon me at an early. I took this mantra with me when I attended Special Forces Combat Diver School at Key West in 2010. My drowning and subsequent failure at Dive School resided in my mind for months to come. I assumed everything I hope to achieve was lost. After the summer had passed and as the semester was about to begin, I recognized that I could still achieve my goals, but it would take time, dedication, and sacrifice. I had to prove myself above my peers. I was already in my junior year of my Political Science degree with at least 4 more semester’s worth of courses to complete. In addition to my ROTC curriculum and working part time, my academic scheduled was already overwhelming. After detailed research and intensive analysis, I realized I could achieve a second

Failure is a missed opportunity, poor test grade, or missing the game-winning goal. Depending on its scale, certain failures can cause one individual to cry and another to shake it off. In school, one individual's failure is another one's success. I experience failure like this but at a different scale because to me, failure is more than disappointing my parents or teachers. I feel like I am defined by that failure, and that it will never vanish. This particular failure defines me and will stay with me throughout my school years.

Everyone will encounter failure on their way to success. Without failure, we cannot grow and succeed – it teaches us how to improve ourselves. In history, for example, Abraham Lincoln went through many failures before becoming one of the United States’ greatest presidents. He was demoted quickly in the military and lost many elections in his career, but continued to work until he had risen to presidency (Wilson). Another example is J.K. Rowling, the famous author of the Harry Potter series. She went through many struggles in her life, each time adjusting and eventually working her way up to huge success and wealth (Gillet). In her book, Very Good Lives, Rowling describes how to embrace failure and improve yourself. There are many other well-known people in history with similar experiences. Walt Disney was fired for a lack of imagination, Sir Isaac Newton failed to run his farm, Thomas Edison was fired several times for being unproductive, and Albert Einstein had difficulty in school – all of these people and many more, at some point of their life, encountered failure and had to learn to accept it to achieve success. In my experience, this also applied in school. Although I always went for the highest grades, there were some times when I had a string of low grades. I learned to accept failure and learn from it, along with adjusting to change, to work my way back up to success in

I will begin on the importance of failure. This, to me, is an exceptionally important life lesson to teach to students of this generation. With all of the issues our country faces, particularly with student loans and unemployment, there is so much pressure on our students to do well. This message comes with what I consider to be a harmful consequence; the fear of failure. This mindset hinders students from excelling

Through out my high school career I never took my education seriously. For most of the four years it was a big blur. I’m not quite sure if it was because of me or if I found myself blaming my surroundings or teachers for my lack of focus and strive to learn. A failure can mean different things to everyone else. Maybe there’s just different types or categories of failures. These failures are meant to teach us something, or motivate us to simply not make these mistakes again.

During my last year of high school, I have experienced failure in ways I could have never thought of. This failure caused me to re-evaluate myself. I wasn’t failing one class but several courses. My chances of graduation were looking dimmer and dimmer.

Traditionally, failure is seen as a negative concept and is defined as lacking success. I, on the other hand, try to put a positive spin on everything in life. I see failure as an obstacle that is experienced by all, but it does not define an individual. Failure in essence will force an individual to be more receptive to their surroundings and actions and also will force an individual to mature. Looking back on my childhood years I can now pinpoint the areas where I failed and I can confidently say that I have grown and prospered due to those failures. The three major failures I have experienced were my attention deficit issues which affected my ability to succeed in school, my anti-social habit that I let consume my early years, and my