Why failing is a good thing

Plus 5 tips on how to keep making progress as an athlete after failure

This isn’t a negative statement, it’s just a fact of life. You are going to “fail.” Nobody is successful every time they do something, especially if that something is new. Professional basketball players don’t make every free throw, even though no one is guarding them. Olympic sprinters don’t set records every time they run a race.

It’s common for young athletes to think that failure is a judgement about them. I have good news for you; it’s not. Look at any successful person in any field and you will find a resume with many failures. It’s through those failures that people learn and improve.

We all have this tendency; to think that we should be successful right out of the gate.

It’s ok to make mistakes. Going for the steal when you should have stayed home on your opponent. Choosing to go out with friends instead of doing homework or getting a good nights sleep.

What’s not ok is letting those mistakes define you. We’re all really hard on ourselves and are really good catching ourselves in these mistakes. Instead, catch yourself doing the right thing. It always feels good when someone acknowledges the hard work we’ve been putting in; it’s ok to do that for yourself.

Tips

5 ways to keep making progress as an athlete, even though you are going to fail sometimes

Celebrate your wins.

Don’t be afraid of catching yourself making good decisions and giving yourself a “Pat on the back.” Celebrate the little things and you’ll be more likely to do it again.

That’s how you make progress. You do the little things. Over, and over, and over again. Especially when trying a new skill, it’s so important to reinforce it. Celebrate the success of the small things. Oh, and leave out the negativity or comparison; it doesn’t matter that it “Should be easy for you to do that.” Or that someone else is able to make it look effortless, you aren’t them, and if you made a good decision celebrate that.

Get a partner to do it with you.

I’m sure you’ve heard that we’re the average of the people we spend the most time with. If you want to improve at your sport, surround yourself with people who want to improve as much as you. It’s much easier to get your training session in if you have a set time to do it with someone else

Set your “bare minimum.”

It’s easy to go to practice during the season when coach has set the schedule and it’s expected that you’re there. What’s hard is doing the extra work needed to set yourself apart. No one is setting that schedule for you. What is your bare minimum that you can do to get 1% better every day? Is it 100 free throws per day? 5 minutes of watching film? It doesn’t matter how small the action is at first, it may grow over time. Doing something every day to get better is an important habit to get in.

Make it fun.

Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Getting to play sports is a gift, and if it’s not fun then why are you doing it? Find ways to enjoy the process, enjoy the grind of a hard workout, and the struggle of getting better. It won’t always be fun, but if you can find a way to enjoy the process you’ll be more likely to do the work.

Connect.

Connect yourself to why you’re doing what you’re doing. Connecting your goal to something more meaningful is super important. A good way to think of this is thinking “What would your future self think about your decisions?” Working hard to accomplish a goal is not something you’ll regret in the future. Think of the person you want to be in the future, then go do the things that person would do.

You will fail. It doesn’t matter. Celebrate your wins, get a training partner, do something every day to get better. Make it fun, and remind yourself why you do what you do.

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