26A- Celebrating Failure

Something I repeatedly failed at this semester was my first attempt at making an elevator pitch. I have never been comfortable speaking in front of an audience or a camera for an extended period of time. To add to that, I had not recently talked to anyone because of Covid-19 which I believe added a little rust. When trying to record the speech, I knew exactly the topics I wanted to cover but I did not have it scripted. My first six or seven attempts I would get at least thirty seconds in before completely spacing out and forgetting what else I wanted to talk about. Eventually, I had my talking points memorized, it just came down to execution. I attempted the recording at least twenty times, starting over again and again because of I would stutter out of nerves.

I learned from this failure that I needed practice. At the beginning, I became frustrated having to start over again each time. Eventually instead of looking at each attempt as a failure, I began looking at it as practice. As a coach I understand performing rep after rep is the only way to improve. 

I used to really struggle failing at things. I always wanted to be perfect at everything and hated failing. This caused me to stay in my comfort zone too long which hurt my growth as a person and as a basketball player. I have a new perspective as a coach and understand that failing is a part of growth. I would rather have a player fail at doing something the right way then succeeding at something they are already comfortable doing. I've used this perspective and applied it to my own life. I now accept failure and use it as a tool to improve. This class has not changed my perspective on failure, but instead has strengthened my recently changed perspective. I fail at something everyday now which is better for me than when I used to stay in comfort zone.