Keep Moving Forward: Recovering from Failure

Written by Lovelyn on December 8, 2008 – 12:12 pm -

The other day I had to speak in public. I was feeling particularly terrified about giving this speech. I prepared well in advance and practiced everyday until it was time, but on the day of the speech I was so scared that my heart was pounding in my throat all day.

When it was time for me to give the speech, for some reason I decided to wing it and ignore my notes. That was a really bad idea because I bombed. I mean it really stank. I was so embarrassed, I wanted to curl up in a corner and die, but I couldn’t because I had to teach a class the following day.

My teaching skills are not as bad as my public speaking skills, but they still aren’t as good as I’d like them to be. I was very prepared for the class and again when it came time to teach for some reason I decided to ignore my notes and just wing it. (I don’t know what’s wrong with me these days.) While I did literally stink during the lesson–I realized too late that I’d forgotten to put on deodorant–the lesson itself didn’t stink at all. There are some things I would’ve changed, but I’ll have to teach again next month so I’ll do it differently then.

My point is that if you try to do something and you bomb, it’s done. You need to get over it and move on. The speech I gave the other day was probably the worst speech I’ve ever given, but it really wasn’t that bad. I’m still here. People still seem to like me. Now I think I might try to speak in public more often. Just to get it right.

We all make mistakes. Maybe you didn’t plan something as well as you should’ve. Maybe circumstances beyond your control caused problems that you couldn’t foresee. Maybe you just aren’t as good as you thought you were at something. Maybe, like me, you decided to ignore all the preparation you’d done. Whatever the reason for it, it’s important not to dwell on your failures. One of the keys to success is being about to get up, dust yourself off, analyze what just happened and keep moving forward. A sense of humor helps too.

Photo by Wandering Angel

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