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Fear Of Failure Research Paper

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Why are we so afraid of failure? Not of our own failure, but of our children's? I don't have a child, of course we all know this, but I sometimes find myself more worried about my younger sister's failures than I am my own.

We are so afraid of other people failing because we know how much it sucks. Each and everyone of us has failed miserably at some point in our lives, no matter how big or how small. We recognize the struggle, the frustration and the overall feeling of disappointment.

I'll be honest, I've failed in numerous areas. I technically never 'passed' speech therapy and I've failed a lot of exams: A spelling test [I got 19 wrong out of 20], an Economics Exam I actually studied for [I got 0/100], and my AP Spanish Exam …show more content…

I felt like a failure when I crashed my brand new car against a wall [Whoops]. I failed miserably at a Swim Meet too. Now before you think it's "just swimming," you have to understand, I LOVED swimming. It was my life and my joy, I swam almost 6-7 hours a day and loved the Butterfly Stroke. That swim meet one was tough; I threw out my shoulder swimming butterfly at my first Varsity Meet. I was in first place too, but throwing out my shoulder and obviously I lost that within seconds. Mind you, I was also starting to be scouted by West Point at UCLA [West Point wanted female swimmers to compete against the Navy, which is kinda cool] and I was supposed to report my swim times to them (I was a sophomore in High School, but my butterfly time was that of a College Freshman). After throwing out my shoulder during the race, I was out for that season and lost my fly time for years. But, that race? I finished it. At least in the grand scheme of things, I can say I swam butterfly one-armed and got last place. I tucked the injured arm by my torso, swam the last two laps with one arm at a …show more content…

None of it's fair for a kid to go through so much, but it's better they do this as children than as adults.

Now, I see some obviously worry about their child's success. They think that maybe school is too hard for them, let's place them in an easier setting so they can excel.

To which, I cringe.

Childhood is the best time to learn how to fail and, I'd argue, the worst time to excel. If they excel too much, they take success for granted. If they fail too much, they may shut down. It's a balancing act, isn't it? But, regardless, failing in childhood is merely a part of the journey of growing as a person.

They are young enough to recover; even if you put them in the most difficult atmosphere and they shut down completely, you can pull them out altogether and re-route. However, what if they are still trying to do their best and still at-best mediocre? Then you fight with them, never remove them from a fight if they want to finish it.

Great, now this sounds like a wrestling match. Anyways, these children with Apraxia have an opportunity to discover something at a very young age:

Failure Happens, It's How You Overcome That Failure That Brings

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