1. About two years ago I ran for one of my fraternity's executive council positions; I was a new brother, but fairly confident at the time. I was running against two other brothers, people at the time I didn't consider too strong of competition. Low and behold I end up losing. By a land slide. I wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but I knew I needed to find out.
2. To be elected into a position, we must give a speech. Once all the candidates have given their speech, an anonymous ballot is taken. What I ended up learning later, was that my speech was my downfall. There were two mistakes I make: I sounded very confident, and very inexperienced. I needed to refine my speech giving skills, ones that would be able to mold to a crowd. I also needed to do a better job researching my position, so that I sound informed for future elections.
3. Failure is definitely something that is taught and not innate. This experience I referenced above was one that where I felt embarrassed because I let me self-confidence get the better of me; I let it rule my judgement. I look at failure as a singular moment in your short history, something you can expand upon and learn from. Emotionally, I think it's important to keep our expectations in check; never go into anything (especially an election) with the mindset that everything will go your way. Not only will this keep you humble, but lessen the blow if things don't go as well as you'd hoped.
I'd say I'm definitely more likely to go out of my comfort-zone to get the information and opinions I need. I don't really fear failure, since in the end it could lead to an even better outcome in the future.
Hey Tyson! I think that running for something in an election and not winning is something that we can all relate to. This happened to me with something that I ran for in high school but the difference between us is that you went back and asked what you did wrong, which I think it great because you are able to grow from that feedback. Here’s a link to my post: http://cxgoss.blogspot.com/2016/04/celebrating-failure.html.
ReplyDeleteTyson,
ReplyDeleteNice post! I have failed in the same way- I lost in the running for our social chair against older girls this year. I like how you reacted to failure, because that is something I struggle with. I too feel like I would go out of my comfort zone more often because of this class. Great job! You can check out my Celebrating Failure post here: http://taylertibbits.blogspot.com/2016/04/celebrating-failure.html