Exams are over and the new semester has started. Also, many of us just got their exam results. Hopefully, most of them were better than we thought, maybe others were worse, some were as expected and others probably disappointed us. The impact that a simple, tiny number can make in our everyday lives is huge. It has the power to make us chuffed or down in the dumps. A bad mark can depress many of us as much as a good one can make us the happiest in this world. Generally, from the smallest to the biggest challenges that we face during our lives, every achievement and every failure affects, not just our temporary mood, but our attitude towards the future.
Seeing life as a journey, with every step following the previous, we could think that perhaps every obstacle we meet is the result of the choices we made. That’s nice, but this attitude can be dangerous. It is completely fine, and I would say necessary, to always keep in mind what came before us. The choices we made and the distance we covered. But the risk of this is that we stay stuck in our past and our mistakes turn into heavy stones. We need to get rid of these stones if we want to stand up again and put our best foot forward. You will be stronger and free, free to make mistakes and stand up again endlessly. Otherwise, the stones will amass and you won’t be able to move anymore. That’s just a simple metaphor, but, still, I strongly believe it suggests an effective way in which everyone could face not just their exams results, but everyday challenges.
Positivity can help us leave behind our stones and look into the future with confidence. Be positive! Remember that you can benefit from your mistakes. What is important is trying to understand what was wrong and the reason why. Learn your lesson. Afterwards, learn to put your conscience at rest and to give a fresh boost to your future actions.
Another factor that can let us down when we fail are high expectations. Other people, or even just ourselves, can expect too much from us. This can make our reaction to failure even worse. It’s admirable to aim at success and to try to always do our best. However, we are only human.
As we all can fall, we all can get back on our feet. I believe that everything is in our mind and that we’ve got the capability to do everything if we wanted. It’s you who decides the way, the pace and the attitude. At the end of the day, it is you who has the real power to forget a bad result, to leave behind the sadness and disappointment and, instead, be positive and self-confident about the challenges that are to come.
Eleonora Peruch
(Image: Redbubble)