You can’t reach the top without failing on your way
No one has ever reached the top in their field without making tons of mistakes. For every pro gamer, experiencing failure has without a doubt been a big part of their journey towards the top.
A player who has talked about making mistakes and the importance of experience is Karrigan, currently playing for Faze Clan.
He was 32 years before winning his first major and if he wasn’t able to learn from his mistakes, he would never have reached the level he is at today. Most important for his success is that he never gave up.
You try to fix all of your mistakes. You try to get better and the main motivation is to show everyone that we can be even better next time”, Said Finn Karrigan in an interview with HLTV in 2019
When having a healthy approach towards failure you will keep getting new opportunities to improve.
In this article, we will dive deeper into the value of failing, how to deal with it and what you can do to cultivate it into new opportunities.
First, recognize the incredible value of failure
The lessons you can learn from your failures, big or small, are invaluable towards improvement. But many will turn their heads away because it can hurt their pride or self-image to look at mistakes and areas for improvement.
Instead of letting failures hurt your self-esteem, you can start recognizing the valuable lessons you can gain when you know how to deal with failures. When you become able to recognize this, your experience and knowledge will grow faster and more opportunities will naturally arise. Catching up on these opportunities brings great value for you to improve as a player. You also become more resilient to negative events and mistakes that surely will happen in the future.
Deal with- and rethink your failures
Working with your own failures can be tough. Having a systematic approach to how you deal with failures makes the process much easier.
Going through a process to evaluate and reflect upon your game play and performance you want to ask yourself some questions to cultivate self-awareness. Maybe you lost an important match and you did some mistakes that could have turned the match in your favour if they didn’t happened?
Helpful questions to ask yourself after a failure:
- What went well?
- What could I have done differently?
- What can I learn from this?
- What other options did I have?
- What do I need to do so the same mistake doesn’t happen again?
- Do I need to improve some skills?
- What will I do next?
Failure-proof your mindset and rise back up
It’s normal to be afraid of making mistakes in a match and to be anxious about what the team might be thinking if your performance is not optimal. If you feel like you are afraid of failing, you can reflect on the following guidelines next time you sit to play and you feel anxious:
- There is always room for improvement – the most important part is recognizing what can be done differently next time
- Do the best you can and take responsibility for your part
- Understand your limitations and your limitations as a team
- Recognise and accept that failure can hurt emotionally
- Don’t make it personal and try not to worry about what others think
What to remember from this article?
Overall, failures should not be seen as a step back but as an opportunity to grow. They can help you to know what your weaknesses are and to rethink new ways to achieve better results.
- Understand and recognise the value of failing; failure is part of becoming better and no one can avoid making mistakes
- Always deal with your failures to rethink your failures to identify the opportunities to grow
- Failure-proof your mindset by acknowledging the fear of failing to constructively rise back up
