26A - Celebrating Failure

Celebrating Failure:

·      A time I’ve Failed:

o   As a kid who came out of high school having ran Cross Country for four years I was very skinny. I decided to find another outlet for my energy and that became going to the gym. I always wanted to be bigger than I was so I tried hard to make that a reality. While I’ve had some success with it I’m still on the smaller side and it has a lot to do with my appetite. I found that this last summer I was able to consume enough calories to be in a caloric surplus all the time and put on weight while supplementing that with going to the gym. When I came back for fall I was not able to eat that much due to my meal plan and my picky appetite. This went through this semester until I finally decided I could really fix my eating habits in order to gain weight.

·      What I learned:

o   I learned that even though I found it difficult to consume enough food with money being tight, I was able to find cheap alternatives that still allowed me to eat the amount of calories I need to gain weight. This was a larger challenge than it really seems because it involves a college students budget and it’s sometimes hard to justify spending more money on food than what you really need. But this goal I set for myself made me realize that I can definitely achieve difficult goals even though they make me struggle.

·      What I think about failure:

o   I think that failure is something that is definitely scary but it has to be looked upon in a positive light or a person will never grow. There is no way or function or formula that a person can apply to their life in order to win at every aspect of life and consistently avoid failure. And with this being said, failure is literally consistent throughout every day. It is one of the things we can almost assure ourselves of day in and day out. If you stay in bed to avoid failing, you failed to get out of bed. If you cannot look at this failure in a positive light, in a way that makes you succeed in the future, you cannot progress. This class introduced me to the book I reflected upon in the third reading assignment “Mindset” by Carol Dweck. I realized that the way you look at failure can be because of a belief you set on your own characteristics and it’s necessary to change those views in order to change the way you succeed.