How To Fail in College

Failure.

It’s a terrible feeling, right? But the truth is anyone that tries something new will also fail at something sooner or later. Failing is a part of life. Unfortunately, it can lead to not trying or giving up because we want to avoid that painful feeling. We won’t have any regrets if we don’t try, right?

Wrong!

We all want to live by the philosophy of “No regrets!”, but  this outlook can actually be a harmful in not allowing us the ability to learn from our painful mistakes. Regret can be a powerful tool if we let it. Don’t let failure stop you from trying. That painful feeling of failure and regret is a message we can learn from. Learning from your mistakes is when growth happens.

We see it all the time in sports. Professional athletes study videos of their past games to see how and why they made mistakes so they can do better next time. Why then do we not allow ourselves the same reflection with traditional classes, grades, or other areas of life? Instead it’s often internalized and you begin to believe that you’re just not good at math and you should choose a college major that plays to your strengths. Or you’re not good at resolving conflict or handling money.

While this can be an easier pathway with less barriers for you to achieve your goals, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. You’re telling yourself that just because something is hard that it’s not for you. When in reality we learn more from our mistakes and grow into better humans when we make and learn from our mistakes instead of shying away from them.

How to Fail In College and Get Back Up

Failure can feel like a critique on you as a person, but if you want to do well in school it’s imperative that you separate feelings from the failures AND reflect on what, how, and why the mistakes happened in order to learn from them. The same applies to other mistakes in life. I’m not saying it will be easy. You will need to show yourself some compassion and not judge yourself with a critical eye, but it is so worth examining.

That’s why I’ve made a workbook all about failure with strategies and exercises to overcome challenges that may arise during that first year of college.

I want to help you make the transition from internalizing those failures to learning from them.

Preparing for Failure: College Edition