Failure stinks!

Recently, people have been telling me I'm too hard on myself. I suppose there is truth to this. I have been getting very frustrated when I don't pass tests or when I make mistakes. I'm not sure where this stems froms but it reminds me of something I heard almost ten years ago.

When my brother graduated from college, UPENN, my whole family drove from Massachusetts down to Philly. Like most college graduations, mine excluded..grrrr,(I'm not bitter or anything) they had a guest speaker. It was John McCain. And although I don't completely agree with his politics, I can't deny that he is an incredible man, who has led and extraordinary life.

During his speech, he said something I will never forget. He said, "Many people tell you not to be afraid of failure, but I'm telling you this: Be afraid of failure. Failure stinks!" He went on to say that we can learn from failure and you shouldn't let one failure ruin all ventures you make in your lives, but that we should always strive for perfection, and try to eliminate the possiblity of failure. He also said that it is okay to be upset when you fail at something, as long as you acknowledge that you gave it your best and strive to do better in the future.

I think that is why I'm so hard on myself. I'm afraid of failure, yet in court reporting school a little failure is inevitable. I suppose I just need to learn from it and strive to do better in the future.

But it's okay for me to be upset and hard on myself sometimes, John McCain said so.