Embrace Failure to Win!
5-11-15
By: Meaghan McGurgan
I failed a lot as a kid. I tried out for shows, for teams, for leadership positions and failed miserably, even spectacularly at times. And you know what? I learned a lot from those failures... Recently, I had a opportunity to speak at a big conference where I failed fantastically. I think there should have been fireworks shooting off behind me and lights going off saying, "This person is choking!!! Watch her explode!!!" To be honest, I still can't think about that day without being really sore about it, but one day I know I'll be able to watch the footage and learn from it, maybe even laugh from it. We are far too obsessed with success in the modern day world. Afterall, what is success? How do you define something so subjective?
It's important for us as human beings to fail. But while you're lying on the floor, what's even more important is to be thinking: "Okay, so how do I start again?" Failure reveals our ability to adapt. You'll never know how much weight you can lift until you reach an amount you can't. Trainers often refer to this as "lifting to failure." Pushing yourself as far as you can lets you know what's possible. By avoiding limits, you'll never reach your peak. The fear of failure stops us a lot shorter than failure itself. So keep going until nothing more is possible. Then celebrate what you've accomplished.
We can't create art without risking failure. If we only created art within the safety zones we'd just be producing boring productions over and over again. We need risk to be exciting as artists. We must embrace the change and move forward.
Failure makes success a little sweeter. We appreciate victory more when we've tasted defeat. Life wouldn't be fun if things always worked out. Know that your failure is just part of the game we're all playing. We expend a lot of energy running from failure. Try embracing it. Find the opportunity in the adversity. If there's a recipe for success, failure might be its primary ingredient. Because we can only appreciate the good times when we've savoured the bitterness of the bad.
A new event coming to Hong Kong is "F*ck Up Nights"... Yeah, that's really the name of it. I had the chance to talk with Martine McKenna who is running the event.
"Through hosting Fuck Up Nights, we hope to change the conversation and discourse surrounding failure. Instead of seeing failure as something to hide, we believe that failure should be embraced, because it is only sharing these stories that we can collectively grow as a community."
The first F*ck Up Nights will be taking place tonight at the Hive. It's sold out but you should check out their facebook page to stay in touch with future events that celebrate all our efforts, even the less than glamorous ones.
Take a risk today and try falling on your face. Trust me, it sucks but it might make you a better person.
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