28 Days To Confidence - Day 3

28 Day To Confidence - Day 3

Day 3: Dealing with failure - Learn from it

The last two days have focused on physical changes, today is all about building mental strength.  How we feel and think about ourselves makes a huge impact in all areas of our lives.  It's easy to be positive when things are going well, but the real challenge is to see positives when things aren't.  

Today I would like you to think of a time where you weren't so confident, where things didn't go as you would have hoped, a failure.  I want you to take yourself back there and relive the experience, not to make you think negatively, but rather to find positives.  There is no way that we can predict every situation, outcome and how we will react.  This is not an exercise to beat yourself up for not being perfect.  You can't learn from perfection, there is no room to grow, develop, or change.  Change is exciting, take it with you next time.  

Think of what you learnt about yourself from this situation, what you learnt about life and what you would do differently.  You can't change the past, but you can change you.  If you learn from your mistakes, you can prepare for similar situations in the future and therefore, be more confident.  If you can turn a failure into a win, you never fail. :)

The only mistake you can make is not learning from them

How did I go?

I recently had a situation where I really didn't do my best at all, in fact, it was probably the worst I've ever performed in this situation.  I thought I was prepared, but if I'm completely honest with myself, I should have prepared more.  It started out well, but because I wasn't prepared enough, my nerves got the better of me and took over.  I froze up, my memory blanked and basically rendered me useless.  

I'm actually remembering it again as I'm typing this and smiling.  I can smile about it now, but at the time it was horrifying!  After the event I was in a state of shock, I felt sick, embarrassed, I was so upset and angry at myself.  I definitely let it get the better of me and I went into a self loathing stage.  At the time I tried to see the positives but I was too overcome with emotion and it clouded any positive thoughts.

How can I smile about it now?  Because this was the perfect example of what NOT to do in this situation.  When it's such a blunder, you know exactly what you need to do next time.  I now see with clarity that this opportunity really wasn't right for me and it wasn't what I really wanted.  I'll be placing myself in a similar situation soon and I'll view my previous experience as practice.

I'm already preparing for the next opportunity and I'll be that much stronger and confident for it.

How are you going with this challenge? Remember to carry on the previous lessons with you. :)