Failures

Probably because I have been having lots of conversations with students stressed about college applications or stressed about first quarter grades, but I have been hearing many students talking about themselves as "being failures."  And I need to make sure that if you are saying or thinking this about yourself, you hear me clearly say that this is NOT correct!  

A failure is an EVENT, not a PERSON!  Too often we get this concept messed up in our minds.  We tend to think that we are a failure when we fall short of a goal or a dream that we had set for ourselves.  But in reality we are not a failure when we don't achieve a goal.  We are just human.

Having the mindset that we will be able to move forward, try new things, learn and and grow without ever failing is setting us up for disappointment because that isn't how life works.  A realistic expectation that we can have for ourselves is that we will learn from the mistakes we make and work to identify new ways to approach challenges.  

So please, if you find yourself falling into the mental trap of believing that you are a failure, try to remind yourself that failures are events you are going through and NOT who you are as a person!