Failure and your wellness journey
Like many of us, you have tried time and time again to lose weight and get fit. You’ve joined the gym, bought and eaten healthy food and yes, you managed to lose some pounds and improve your fitness level! Your family and friends applauded, and your physician was ecstatic. Well done!
Only this didn’t last long. Soon enough, you found yourself skipping the gym and regaining the lost pounds. Did you fail? Does this constitute a failure in your wellness journey? Do you feel defeated and angry with yourself?
Failure is an important part of success
You will certainly be sad, but it is important to recover and start planning your next steps to success. While most of us are programmed from childhood to see failure as a bad thing, it’s important to start seeing failure as an essential part of success. Just don’t let failing distract you from your goals. Remember that successful people do not let failures kill their dreams
The pursuit of perfection
Denying failure actually means pursuing perfection. And perfection doesn’t exist. People who are looking for perfection are less creative and innovative than the average person, and less likely to take risks and take on vital tasks. Keep in mind that the quest for perfection is not the same as the quest for improvement. The first is aiming for an impossible goal, and the second is about becoming better.
Why does it carry a heavy, negative weight for many of us?
Here are some thoughts about why failure feels so bad.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism may be the most crucial reason why people hate failure. Perfectionists cannot handle it and if anything goes wrong, that hurts them deeply. It is difficult for them to ignore any obstacles they encounter and to appreciate the effort.
Programmed since childhood
Parents often criticize their children and set rules that are based on fear. Unfortunately, this leads to adults who grow up to avoid failure at all costs, sometimes at the expense of their progress.
Low confidence
All psychologists tell us that confident people know that they are not always able to succeed. And they are OK with that. On the other hand, people with insecurities avoid facing challenges. They prefer to stay in their comfort zone rather than try something new and risk failing at it.
Dealing with setbacks and reframing them as motivation and learning opportunities
People fear failure, but the truth is that failure can open up a world of exciting opportunities for you. How is this done? By learning from your mistakes! Instead of seeing failure as something detrimental, you should see it as a tool for success, a tool that will help you improve your journey in life.
Have you heard of these examples of failure before?
- JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, faced a catalog of failures after graduating from college. She was unemployed, divorced, and 12 publishers rejected her book and informed her that it would never be a commercial success. Twelve publishers said no! However, she went on to send the manuscript to the 13th publisher and the rest is history.
- Michael Jordan said, “I’ve lost almost 300 games. I have said 26 times that we are going to win the game and we lost. I have failed again and again in my life. And that’s why I finally succeeded.”
Are you ready to embrace your failures to succeed?
Here are some tips on how to overcome the fear of failure.
Identify the reason
Reflect and look inside to find the underlying cause of your fear. Try to understand where the fear is coming from. The moment you understand your fear, its power is lost.
Set clear goals in your journey
Set clear goals for all that you want to achieve and plan ways you can do it. Always remember that it’s about the journey and not the destination. It’s about the person you are becoming because of your goals and dreams. Consider them and clarify the why behind them. Identify for yourself your real motivation for doing this. If you need to lose weight and get fit for health reasons, you can look beyond losing x amount of weight and focus on getting fit so you can grow old with your partner, or have enough energy to play in the park with your kids, or maybe kill it on the dance floor with your friends!
Think positive
Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts and create a new way of thinking that will protect you from negativity. Develop a growth mindset that dictates progress and frames failures as opportunities for learning.
Reframe your wellness journey
So, what if you are not perfectly fit already? You have learned so much about it. You have experienced methods that aren’t working for you but brought you closer to the methods that will work for you. You realized it’s about setting the right goals and realizing that fitness is above all a lifestyle choice. A way of life with its ups and downs. A process of learning and improving your ways.
If you want help reframing failure, setting the right goals, and kick-starting your wellness journey, you can come to one of the eXtreme Fitness Camps in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. There, a team of dedicated people will help you with all your fitness goals and put you on the right track. This can be the journey of a lifetime where you learn much more than just your proteins and your carbohydrates. You will return home as someone who sees failure as a step to success, and defeat as an important learning experience.
Choose to pursue your dreams and goals and don’t let the fear of failure stop you!
References
Psychology Today, 10 Surprising Facts About Failure, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201501/10-surprising-facts-about-failure
The Medium, Failure Isn’t Really Failure, https://medium.com/swlh/failure-isnt-really-failure-a03445edaf0b
The Dream Catcher, 5 Reasons Why Failing Does Not Make You a Failure, http://thedreamcatch.com/why-failing-does-not-make-you-a-failure/