Overcoming Failures & Graceful Efforts: Growth Mindsets to Supercharge Your Perseverance

Some of us already have established goals. And these goals are often backed by strong plans. Designed to be executed through relentless efforts and perseverance. Though at times our perseverance and efforts are tested relentlessly by the overwhelming number of struggles we face at accomplishing our plans. We got confused about what to do next, we failed to meet the expectations we had laid upon ourselves, we began to be distraught, and our self-critical inner voice began to tell us that this isn’t for us. And the moment we realized — we already gave up on our precious goals. That doesn’t mean that we lack perseverance per se. We just need to back our plans with growth mindsets. We should learn to see failures as an opportunity rather than disappointments and to recognize that our minor efforts are gracefully taking us to our established goals.

Let me share you an idea that I’ve learned from a Substack post I’ve read yesterday, titled “Eight Patterns I Keep Seeing in Miserable People.” The author introduces us to a psychologist named Edward Thorndike and his thought experiment with a cat and a puzzle box with a lever. He would put the cat inside of the box, and in turn it would get the cat agitated and often yowls to get out. As the cat attempts to escape the enclosed box, it eventually freed itself by accidently hitting the lever. Thorndike unforgivingly did this experiment several times. And eventually the cat got faster at hitting the lever. Because the cat already, the lever is its ticket way out of the puzzle box. Thorndike, referred to it as “Law of Effect and demonstrates that animals remember: consequences → relief → reward. However, some people tend to do the opposite: reward → relief → consequences. That is, we tend to remember only the bad things, and we often forget to think of what were the good things that happened to us. I strongly believe that Thorndike’s premise is the reason why we often consider failures as something bad. By integrating growth mindsets to our thinking, we can overcome this effect. Knowing that failures do not define our character. And that it doesn’t conclude that we are failing to progress into our goals. We should not feel discouraged or be in doubt when we fail at something. We should strive to consider it as opportunity rather than a disappointment.

We should always be grateful no matter what our progress is at the end of the day. We don’t have to finish all our plans at once; we should be happy that we’ve done something for the day that makes us closer to our goals. Each day that we make minor efforts, we are gracefully getting closer to our established goals. That’s the lesson here, you don’t have to rush to achieve things, you just need to be persistent and be kind to yourself at every step of the way. Be grateful that you have the perseverance right now to act in your plans.

Making mistakes or failing at something doesn’t equate that we are failing to reach our goals. It means we are doing our best to execute every plan on the list. We are persevering to achieve our goals. So, the next time you have a speck of doubt or urge to give up because of failures. Failures aren’t a sign that you’re straying from your goals. It’s basically taking you closer to your target; and every minor, positive effort you make to overcome these failures is gracefully taking you to your destination.