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Three-time Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee has held 19 world records in several track and field events. She was not always
a winner and claims that losing a race, and understanding why, allowed her to become a
champion. In a sense, failure became her friend.
I’ve noticed that other elite athletes have a high tolerance for setbacks. They accept failure as a necessary ingredient, the price you pay for taking risks. Failure and setback are often
associated with crisis. In Chinese, the word for crisis means danger and opportunity. Failures are
opportunities to learn and, with this newfound knowledge, improve and forge ahead. Failure is your
teacher; you can learn a lot if you realize this.
The following strategy will help you see opportunity in a crisis. When you have a major failure,
go through the following six steps to help you regain your perspective and learn:
- Record the facts about the situation. For example, “I got dropped by the group on the
first hill” or “I couldn’t complete the workout.”
- Record your subjective judgment about this experience. For example, “I’m a terrible
athlete, a loser. I don’t deserve to be here.”
- Record your feelings with response to this subjective judgment; for example, “I’m
devastated, depressed, and upset.”
- Record the objective data that supports the judgment in step 2. There probably is no
conclusive data to verify your comments.
- Record what you’ve learned from the setback. For example, “I need to focus on hill
repeats in my training” or “I need to pace myself at the start of races.”
- Record how you now feel, based on step 5. For example, “I’m still disappointed, but
I’ll be OK. I’m better because of it, and I look forward to another try.”
In addition to this strategy, you can see failure as a positive, natural, inevitable process by
using the following guidelines:
- Establish realistic, challenging short-range goals. Since you are likely to achieve these
goals frequently, you will establish the psychological message that “I am a winner. I
accomplish my goals.” This will ignite courage, confidence, motivation, and commitment for
future efforts.
- Remember that it is impossible for anyone to be thoroughly competent and successful.
Failure is part of the process of success. Performance is a roller coaster and to think
otherwise is extremely irrational. You win some, lose some; you’re hot, you’re not.
Don’t fight with yourself when failure, the teacher, pays an unexpected visit. Learn from
it.
- Mastery is truly “time in the saddle.” Give yourself the time, however long, to come
into your own. Patience, persistence, and perseverance are the three virtues of extraordinary
performance.
- True failure only happens when you’re unwilling to take the risks to grow and improve.
You never want to look back with regret and wish you had taken the risk to go all out and find how
good you really are.
- Like the Zen warrior, expect nothing but be ready for anything. Expectations are setups
for failure. Establish strong visions of preference, and then do everything within your power
to bring those preferences to fruition.
- Failure is not devastating; you probably won’t die from it. But it is disappointing. When
you look back upon success or failures in competitive situations, you’ll notice that
they’re rarely indicative of absolute truth: You are never as great as your best victory,
nor as bad as your worst defeat. Refuse to give too much credence to your results.
Once you have a handle on the mental shift from failure to opportunity, you may want to create
affirmations to put you back on the right track. Create your own or tailor any of the following to
your needs:
- Failures are lessons from which I learn and forge ahead
- Success doesn’t guarantee happiness; failure need not be misery
- Performance is a roller coaster
- Stop, look, and learn
- Adversity leads to inner strength. I am a better athlete because of it
- I act instead of reacting; I learn from failure
- Setbacks are my teachers, they help me to go beyond my limits
In the martial art Aikido, the fighter blends with the direction of an opposing force, moves with
it, and uses it to his or her advantage. Try this approach with failure: See it as an opposing
force, accept it and blend with it, using its lessons to your advantage. By so doing, the power of
the opposing force (failure) ceases to exist. You redirect the force and forge ahead.
Remember to keep perspective whenever you face any kind of setback or failure. You’ve realized
tremendous physiological benefits from your workouts, and to become tense over a poor performance
negates much of what you’ve gained. Not only are a few failures and setbacks inaccurate
indications of your abilities, they may very well be the key to your greatest breakthroughs and
success. Today’s failure won’t matter in 10 years, but failing to go forward
might.
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