No matter who you are, we all know what it’s like to fail. Bombing that test, being outdone on tryouts, or not meeting your own set expectations. Failure is a universal experience that comes for everybody in their lifetime. And with that being said, you’ve likely heard of all the motivational prep talks. “Don’t give up.” “It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, as long as you get back up. “Failure is a learning experience”. Although those sayings can be true in most situations, the fact of the matter is that failure is something that you’re better off avoiding more often than not. Everyone would rather succeed by gathering the right information and preparing in advance. GPAs tank after a few Fs; rosters don’t open for repeat tryouts; chronic shortfalls drain confidence. There’s a chance you’ll never join that team if you keep flunking tryouts. And who likes the feeling of never living up to their own standards? That’s just a recipe for low self esteem. Therefore, the first aim regarding failure should be to develop strategies and tactics to avoid it the first time instead of repeatedly going through trial and error.
One of the most applicable and useful ways for avoiding failure is preparing ahead of time. More than a fair share of people use this technique at least in a specific area; for example, studying for a big test coming up. However, it’s necessary to use this in every important facet of your life and to build up the difficulty as you go. A good instance of such would be how many professional boxers initially began by training with their coaches, then leveled up to amateur bouts, and after securing a respectable record, upgrading to professional boxing. Start with the easiest variant of the obstacle at hand and push up the difficulty bit by bit. This graduation prevents your body and/or mind from being overwhelmed by especially complex or straining activities. Specifically, it allows one to acclimate to the stimulus at hand and also enables the chance of correcting mistakes when the stakes are low. Moreover, the graduation strategy can be applied to just about anything-sports, academics, even more niche activities like debates. Even so, some people don’t have the time to continually prepare-being forced to resort to a different stratagem: information gathering.
Information gathering in this context revolves around obtaining knowledge regarding the task or event one wants to succeed at or in. Specifically, getting the scoop on tactics or gameplans that have empirically worked on info is absolutely necessary in order to have an idea of what you’re doing. Returning back to the topic of school, a display of info gathering would be as simple as asking your math teacher what equations will be needed for an exam coming up. Thinking outside of school, it could also be asking the coach the common play-by-plays for a sport you play. With acquired intel, it is much easier to form a strategy devoid of any major time consumption or effort that plays to one’s strengths by learning knowledge used to capitalize on a sharp mind and/or strong physique.
Most of us fear failure’s costs, no matter the background, culture, or experiences. Because of this, finding applicable and achievable ways to avoid it like preparation and reconnaissance is something that should be strived towards for the good of everyone. Prepare when you can; recon when you can’t.
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