26A – Celebrating Failure

The event that I chose to speak about in regard to failure is the journey that I faced this semester with my progress on my bodybuilding journey. Along this journey, I’ve been training six days a week, every week and meal prepping along the way. Each workout is usually an hour and a half to two hours, which takes up a considerable chunk of my day, not to mention the time in between due to things like cooking extra, doing extra laundry, grocery shopping more often, etc. This has led to a lot of unexpected difficulties, to which I will now divulge.

For example, waking up and not realizing that I was out of tank tops or shorts, or not checking the weather before I left for the gym, only to realize that I really wish I had a hoodie or a pair of sweatpants in my gym bag. In order to remedy this, I learned that preemptive action and planning is always key. As such, I started keeping a pair of sweats and a hoodie in my bag at all times. The result? No more frigid workouts! In addition, I started keeping better track of when I did my laundry so that I would not run out of clothes. I found that always choosing to do It on Saturday while I prepped my meals not only let me alleviate this problem, but it also made it more efficient for me (killing two birds with one stone!).

One other recurring problem I had was straining my muscles and not recovering them fast enough. This led me to examine some of my daily habits and routines, as I was not sure what was the cause. What did I find? I wasn’t drinking enough water (especially on my off day), and I wasn’t getting enough sleep, particularly on weeknights before I had things due for classes. This led me to formulate a plan: I would keep a note in my phone every day as to how much water I had drank. Every time that I filled up my bottle, I would add to it. I also did the same for how much sleep I was getting. What I found astonished me: I would almost always get 8 hours, but usually one night a week (Thursday) I would only get 6 hours due to having a lot of recurring deadlines. This led me to shift my schedule so that my off day was on Thursday, when I had the most work to do. This let me get enough sleep each night while still getting my work done.

Simply put, failure sucks. It always feels bad, and anyone that tells you otherwise is lying. Having to recognize, assess, and solve a problem takes time and energy, which we do not always have in surplus, especially if we are already under stress with other things in our life. Being a massive perfectionist, I’ve always been extremely hard on myself. I always expect my best, and I get upset whenever I fall short. While this has led me to extremely successful, it has also mad prioritizing and improving my mental health a challenge. However, over time, I have come to the realization that if I can improve my mental health and the conversations that I have with myself, then everything will benefit. Why be mad when I could focus on a solution? At the end of the day, it’s all about being better to me. Why be mad or upset when you could be awesome!

ENT3003 has without a doubt made me more prone to taking risks, be it with voicing my opinion more, or just pushing through the little bits of self-doubt on a daily basis. I’ve realized that when you just say you know what, whatever happens, happens, life gets a lot more fun.