Failure
I saw a store in the Mall of America once called Successories. The front window had prints with pictures of things on them and a motivational caption. An example is a picture of an eagle flying. Underneath it says "Dare to Soar" "Your attitude almost always determines your altitude in life" There's Determination, Diversity, Synergy and so on. Each has its own picture and saying. Bleach. I've never liked motivational things or speakers for that matter. Everyone gets all pumped up and goes out ready to make changes. Then reality hits and it's just like it was before.
There is a parody of Successories called Despair, Inc. Same concept, but the messages are not uplifting. My favorite one is failure. It's a picture of a dejected runner sitting on a bench with his head in hands. Underneath it says "Failure, When your best just isn't good enough"
I was thinking about that the other day when my husband told me that Carrie, my stepdaughter in college, had failed her first math test and was very upset.
I know exactly how she felt. Twenty years ago a similar thing happened to me. I was in pharmacy school and studied very hard for my first pharmaceutics test. I knew it would be tough. I reread the book and all my notes several times to prepare. I took the test and was unsure of how I'd done. A lot of the test was on things we had never covered in class. I was worried. When we got the tests back, I had failed it. I was just sick. Until then the worst grade I ever got was a C. I literally didn't know what to do. Maybe pharmacy wasn't for me. Maybe I wasn't smart enough. I had done my best and it didn't appear to be good enough.
I kept doing my best all through that class and got a D in it. Since I had to get a C or better in order to pass a class I would have to take it over. I had never been in this situation before. I wasn't an A student, but I usually got high B grades and had no way really to cope with this. I felt better knowing that I was not alone, there were several other students who would have to retake the class.
I have a bit of a stubborn streak and it started to kick in. I wanted to be a pharmacist. I was going to be a pharmacist. I was not going to let this deter me from doing what I wanted to do. It could be that taking it a second time with a different teacher and a smaller class could be the key to getting me through this.
It was. The ten of us who had to retake things banded together in a study group that lasted the rest of our time in pharmacy school. We were all determined and helped each other out. All of us graduated with our class and took our Board exams.
One of the members of my Toastmasters group gave a speech recently and mentioned that failure is not final. In some respects failure can motivate you to do something. For me it tested my determination. How committed was I to being a pharmacist? Was I willing to do whatever it would take to get through school?
That determination helped me through school and I've had to draw on it several times since. The thing to remember is failure doesn't have to be final. (Maybe it isn't a demotivator after all.)
There is a parody of Successories called Despair, Inc. Same concept, but the messages are not uplifting. My favorite one is failure. It's a picture of a dejected runner sitting on a bench with his head in hands. Underneath it says "Failure, When your best just isn't good enough"
I was thinking about that the other day when my husband told me that Carrie, my stepdaughter in college, had failed her first math test and was very upset.
I know exactly how she felt. Twenty years ago a similar thing happened to me. I was in pharmacy school and studied very hard for my first pharmaceutics test. I knew it would be tough. I reread the book and all my notes several times to prepare. I took the test and was unsure of how I'd done. A lot of the test was on things we had never covered in class. I was worried. When we got the tests back, I had failed it. I was just sick. Until then the worst grade I ever got was a C. I literally didn't know what to do. Maybe pharmacy wasn't for me. Maybe I wasn't smart enough. I had done my best and it didn't appear to be good enough.
I kept doing my best all through that class and got a D in it. Since I had to get a C or better in order to pass a class I would have to take it over. I had never been in this situation before. I wasn't an A student, but I usually got high B grades and had no way really to cope with this. I felt better knowing that I was not alone, there were several other students who would have to retake the class.
I have a bit of a stubborn streak and it started to kick in. I wanted to be a pharmacist. I was going to be a pharmacist. I was not going to let this deter me from doing what I wanted to do. It could be that taking it a second time with a different teacher and a smaller class could be the key to getting me through this.
It was. The ten of us who had to retake things banded together in a study group that lasted the rest of our time in pharmacy school. We were all determined and helped each other out. All of us graduated with our class and took our Board exams.
One of the members of my Toastmasters group gave a speech recently and mentioned that failure is not final. In some respects failure can motivate you to do something. For me it tested my determination. How committed was I to being a pharmacist? Was I willing to do whatever it would take to get through school?
That determination helped me through school and I've had to draw on it several times since. The thing to remember is failure doesn't have to be final. (Maybe it isn't a demotivator after all.)
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