15 in 15, Lesson 3: Failure Teaches You More Than Success Ever Could
“You live and you learn” is a common phrase that we all throw around from time to time after locking your keys in the car or going to Trader Joe's at 2 p.m. on a Sunday (side note & pro tip: if you must go to TJ’s on the weekend, go before 10 a.m. or after 7:30 p.m. otherwise you will be scared to ever go back). But beyond these everyday lessons, this phrase is something I truly live by and remind myself of daily.
For the 3rd lesson of 15 Lessons I Learned in my 15 Years of Gymnastics (15 in 15), I am going to talk about the F word. And no, it’s not the one that first comes to mind. Today’s lesson will be about failure. More specifically, how you can learn so much more from failure than you can from success.
This past season, on February 16, I got my career-best floor score at a home meet versus Pittsburgh. A 9.875! For a little bit of context, prior to this season I had not competed floor in 4 years, so earning this score was a huge deal to me. For even more context, no more than 10 minutes before this I fell on beam for the first time in 12 meets.
I don’t like falling at meets. Nobody does. But I especially don’t like falling on beam. I’ve always thought of beam as “my event.” It’s the event that has always come most naturally to me and the one I like the most. So falling on beam, especially at a meet, doesn’t make me feel the best.
After being the anchor to the beam line-up and falling on my last skill, I knew I had to quickly reset myself mentally. Huge emphasis on quick. Immediately after my beam routine, we had a 2-minute transition to floor, a 4-minute warm-up, and then I was 1st to compete and open up the floor line-up for my 5 teammates competing after me.
The fall on beam left me defeated and upset. Like I said, nobody likes falling. But I knew I couldn’t dwell on this mistake because my teammates were counting on me to hit my floor routine. So, I quickly went to the bathroom, took some deep breaths, and reframed my mindset. I took this as an opportunity to have a fresh start and display my resilience. And I did just that!
Read the Daily Tar Heel article that highlights my performance here.
In years past, the rest of the meet would’ve been a complete mess. I would have dwelled on my mistake and wouldn’t have been able to move on from it. My ability to compartmentalize and forget mistakes from previous events was extremely weak. I would’ve beat myself up about it for the rest of the meet and days to follow.
This negative mindset surrounding failure is common. Striving for perfection is normal in sports, especially in gymnastics, where small mistakes are magnified into a numeric value that essentially defines your performance.
But what I have learned through gymnastics is that these mistakes are important to my overall success. Having those moments in past years where I let a meet spiral downward after one mistake because I wasn’t able to snap out of a self-defeating mindset led me to this point. I reflected on those moments and learned ways to get myself where I needed to be going into the next event.
Countless, and I truly mean countless, failures in the gym have allowed me to see that failure is normal; in fact, it really is a crucial step toward success. Even though success is rewarding, it doesn’t always push you to grow in the same way that failure does. I haven’t always been the most naturally talented gymnast, but being able to reflect upon and learn from my mistakes has taught me to keep my head up even when things don’t go as intended.
I apply this lesson to my coursework knowing that getting a subpar grade means I should reassess and change my study habits for the next exam. I apply this to my overall well-being by knowing it takes time to adjust to a new schedule, new professors, and new classes each semester and to give myself grace. I apply this to my relationships knowing disagreements will allow me to learn more about a person and our connection. In UX design, failure can be an opportunity to improve, whether it's an early prototype that doesn’t resonate with users or a design that needs revisiting. This lesson is seen everywhere in my life and adjustments based on outcomes are crucial to my success. After all, as my professor Carlos Salas often says, “Everything is a prototype!”
My advice that I want to leave you with today is to embrace the next time you don’t get the outcome you want. Reframe the feeling of failure to be an opportunity for growth. Reflect on aspects that could be improved and apply them the next go-around. Failing is not a sign of weakness. It’s, instead, a key part of success. Even though it's uncomfortable, failure is the best teacher.
As I learned in an entrepreneurship class, it’s always best to FAIL FAST. So next time failure knocks on your door, welcome it. After all, it’s just another step on your path to success.
Talk soon,
🌟 Taylor
