What if you fail even after giving your 100%?
Failure is an opportunity to re-examine, re-assess and re-plan your future course of action. It's not something to feel bad about or something to hide from.
Recently, I met a student who was last year studying in a prestigious college in United States. He has scored above 95% marks in his Class XII and was lucky to get admission in prestigious university in US as well as get scholarship. He studied there for six months, however, after six months, he had a medical reason to leave US and come back to India. On his return he was extremely disappointed, since very few students in the country get admissions in this college. He thought, his life and career would end.
Whether its career, relationships or personal and professional life, sometimes life give us unexpected turns and twists which we have never anticipated, and we don’t know how to get out of these. Here are some suggestive tips that can come handy to overcome situations which life throws at us:
1) Is it bad luck? Let’s say you got selected into a college and thereafter due to some law and order outbreak happens in the college and the college is shut down. What is your fault? It’s not anyone’s destiny to get in a situation like this. Sometimes it just happens. Likewise, let’s say you worked hard and when the day of selection comes, you become seriously ill? It’s not your ill-fate. It’s not your bad luck. Its purely an incident and can happen with anyone.
2) Did you really gave 100%? Yes, often we say, we have given more than 100% but that may or may not be the case. A student I know of is preparing for NEET exams. He is hard working but has not worked hard enough to improve his performance in Physics which impacts his chances of success. Likewise, in any of our given endeavors, are we really giving 100% or are we doing 100% of what we are good at.
3) What did not go right? When faced with a failure or an unexpected setback, what is your response mechanism? Have you observed any pattern in your failure? Is it because of your skills or knowledge or experience or is it totally random? Is there something you can do to make the outcome better next time or is the outcome totally indifferent to your persistence and efforts? Understanding the failure and root causes can help you tackle it better next time.
4) Are you equipped to succeed? Very often when we fail, we start blaming ourselves, without giving any due consideration to the resources which may be needed to succeed. For example, if you are a student who aspire to study graduate courses in US, then being a good student with high score marks alone don’t help. You need to understand the complete admission process, how to write recommendation letters, statement of purpose and reasons for seeking scholarship. Each of these require specific expertise and being a good student alone doesn’t help. You need international counselling advisors who can coach you with all things related to the admissions process.
5) When to continue or quit? Staying committed v/s quitting is not an easy decision. Especially, if you are emotionally involved in the decision process then quitting or staying committed to a decision becomes more complex. A simple yardstick for this scenario is ask yourself two questions: 1) Does your decision of staying committed or quitting open more doors for you 2) If at any point in time you think you made a wrong decision, how much will you loose and how much reversal of decision will impact you. Insight into these two aspects will help you sail through the decision very quickly.
To read this article in Hindi, you can visit Dainik Jagran, where a Hindi version of this article was published.