After a productive but semi-stressful 24 hours perfecting your pitch, you meet your boss on the way to the meeting confirming that you feel prepared and ready for the challenge!
Having smoothly executed the first half of your pitch you press the button for the next powerpoint slide but, unfortunately, the wifi's shut off and in your panic to try and get everything working again you completely forget the rest of your pitch. After a few minutes scrambling to continue, you realize the board of directors have lost interest and (being the busy people they are) excuse themselves to leave, saying they are needed at another meeting across town. You put on your brightest smile as you say your goodbyes but inside you feel like such a failure.
For the rest of the day, trying your best to forget (in your opinion, that mornings catastrophe) you keep hearing that little voice in your head saying; 'God you're such a failure, you should have planned for the wifi to go off, you should have had a back-up option, you could've been on your way to that promotion by now!'
Well let me tell you, we've all been there, we all wish we'd done things differently in high pressure situations, planned better, practiced more, but the truth is Friend, you're not a failure. it's ok to make mistakes, it's ok to think to yourself, I will do something different next time.
You need to remember that you are a strong, smart human being who may fall down, but who will get up, brush yourself off and in doing so, be stronger than you were before!
I like to think of life as a continual growth process. I have made mistake after mistake as we all have - it's part of developing! But life has a funny way of stepping in and saying, 'here, I'm gonna give you a chance to learn/do something differently and you will become a wiser, better version of yourself in acting on this chance. I also believe that when you're disappointed or feel you've failed it's vital that you take action and do something that you are passionate about! That could be playing football, working on your drawing, reading a steamy novel, playing in the park with your kids. As I've mentioned previously, my passion has and will always be music. I remember in my last job which was in high profile corporate sales, I had dealt with an extremely stubborn and rude client one day, which in turn had me feeling really low and unsure if I could even carry on my career in sales. I remember getting on the train home, turning on one of my favorite songs by my favorite artist, Beyonce 'Don't Hurt Yourself' and even though the song is a behavioural check on her husband, the lyrics of empowerment and self worth shifted my whole perspective on my abilities as a sales manager. I bounced in to work the next day, having forgotten that stubborn client's words, ready to take on the world!
I know that we all have hard days in our personal and professional life. Believe me, there's a whole heap of stories that I could tell you about mine! That being said, I want you to remember that the challenges are a lot easier to face when you take a step back, consider if there's anything that you could've done differently, forget the person who made you feel that way and remember that your opinion of yourself is the only one that matters. Pick up that basketball, get those colored pencils out or sing along to one of your favorite artists. I promise you'll feel better when you do something you're passionate about! ** Please let me know how this post made you feel and if there's something concerning you that you think I could help with. I'd be happy to!
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill
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