Failure teaches us more than Success

How do you feel about failure?

What have you failed in?

Why should we have failures? It does not seem fair. What if you lived in a world with free food, no work, no anger or hate. What do you think would happen? We would take it for granted. We would never become better people. It would be unhealthy. We would be couch potatoes. We would believe we are great.

When we have never failed we feel invincible. Failure makes us feel human. Failure teaches us to value everything. After we lose someone we love because they die we remember how important they were. We value people, money, home, and relationships only after we have lost them.

Teaches us how to survive: When we have new problems we have to learn to survive. It makes us smarter and stronger.

Learn from our Mistakes: in life we make mistakes. Our parents told us to be careful but we did not listen. After we hurt ourselves we learnt. In life if we never make mistakes we never learn.

Is a New Opportunity: ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. When we fail, we have a chance to start fresh. At first we don’t see what is good about failing.  Later we think about things and find something positive.

Courage: It takes a lot of courage to try again after we fail. Failure, teaches us to be courageous.

We find our inner strength: When you fail, you have to find strength inside yourself to keep fighting.

Make a Positive Attitude: When you have a set back you have a choice to be negative or positive. What happened is now the past. You need to find a way to be strong and be positive. You can do it.

Keep yourself Motivated: Have people around you that are positive and motivated.  As hard as it might be, keep yourself motivated. Surround yourself with people that motivate you. Listen to motivational speeches, podcasts, and people. Don’t stop trying.

Don’t be afraid. When you embrace failure you are on the way to success.

Like Elon Musk said- Failure is not a choice here. If things are not failing, you are not creating enough.

Find a mentor.  Learn and be get courage from those people you think are great successes. Learn how they failed and how they kept fighting.  Don’t give up.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=8, B=1, C=5, D=7, E=2, F=4, G=6, H=3

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1. I took my mother’s cooking for granted until I had to cook for myself.

2. He’s a real couch potato. He never leaves his home.

3. They never lost a game. It seems like they were invincible.

4. Things are hard now. But every cloud has a silver lining.

5. Life was hard but my mom was courageous. She kept doing her best for us.

6. Failing this test was a set back to my dreams.

7. The professor wants us to embrace the ideas she is teaching us.

8. My childhood mentor was my father. He taught me many life lessons.

    

    

    

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. Have you taken someone or something for granted? How did you know you did that?

2. Do you think being a couch potato is always bad? Why or why not?

3. Do you know any stories of those you thought were invincible but failed? If not, think of a story you heard, saw, or read.

4. How can you have an attitude that every cloud has a silver lining?

5. Give an example of a time you needed to be courageous.

6. If you have a set back, how do you keep fighting?

7. What ideas will you embrace from today’s topic?

8. Who was/is a mentor to you? Describe them.