Failure is relative… and often comes with unexpected benefits
Legendary Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly said: “If you are first, you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”
Gianluca Vialli, another legendary player and manager, thought differently: “You win or you learn… You never lose.”
Where does your measure of success and approach to failure sit on this spectrum?
We’re at the start of a new month.
Heading into a new season.
Some of us might be thinking of setting ourselves goals to take us through to the end of the year. Or taking stock of where we are in relation to the goals we set at the start of the year.
If you plan to do either, give yourself a minute to think about success and how you measure it.
What’s the context you use to shape the way you see (and judge) your actions?
How does that impact how you define your successes and failures?
And what value do you put on each of them?
A rare few of us succeed without ever experiencing knock backs and losses. For most of us, our failures are an important part of our journey to success.
I got to write a piece on what we can learn from losing for Mr Porter.com.
There are 7 useful lessons in there, based on the mindset and approach of elite athletes:
Failure isn’t permanent
It’s part of every success story
Resilience isn’t a solo effort
Develop a growth mindset
Feel the feelings
Let go of perfectionism
You’re more than your stats
We’ve been treated to a summer of sport that has given us all a chance to see the world’s best athletes compete against each other (and themselves) in pursuit of their goals and dreams. Many coming back from previous ‘failures’ or competitions that haven’t gone to plan. From Lewis Hamilton securing his first Grand Prix win in 3 years. To Saka putting his Euro 2020 penalty woes behind him by stepping up to take one (and score) against Switzerland. The emotional farewell to tennis by Andy Murray on court at the Olympics (of course, not before pulling off two edge-of-the-seat comebacks to save match points and secure victories with his doubles partner Dan Evans). Simone Biles (return of the G.O.A.T) and Rebeca Andrade (the ‘bridesmaid’ who took the golden prize for her floor routine).
And now we get to round the season off with a second trip to Paris for the Paralympics.
Bly Twomey captured my imagination early in the Games. Just 14 years old. Competing on sports’ biggest stage 3 years after she first took up table tennis. And there she goes and wins a Bronze in the doubles alongside her playing partner Fliss Pickard. “Just to play with Fliss is a massive achievement for me,” she said afterwards. Before adding: “I’m really proud to get a medal at my first Paralympic Games and it means a lot as I’m only 14.”
“Often we focus on what we could have done better and let the good things we’ve achieved go unsaid and unacknowledged”
I love Bly’s appreciation of what’s she’s achieved and her understanding that she should celebrate it. So often we focus on what we could have done better and let the good things we’ve achieved go unsaid and unacknowledged.
Bly’s Bronze isn’t a Gold, but success is relative too. And Bly’s Bronze is a success by the measures she has set herself.
To be picked for the ParalympicGB team.
To be trusted to partner established para table tennis star Fliss Pickard.
To win a medal.
All in the context of being just 14. At her first ever Paralympic Games.
If goal setting and reviewing your performance are on your autumn agenda, have a read of the Mr Porter piece here
How will you reframe the way you see failure?
