How to keep yourself motivated even after successive failures

"Failure isn’t the end of a journey, instead it is just an experience you have while on your way to success."

While thinking of exams like ESE or GATE we mostly come across three types of students/aspirants. First are the winners who prepare for the exam, crack it and happily move on in their journey towards excellence. Second are the ones, who take the first step of preparing for the exam, but due to failure once or twice have given up and feel like they have lost a part of their life gaining nothing, some also go to the heights of losing their confidence and thus refuse to make a new start. And the third category are the fearers who step back contemplating that it is a tough nut to crack given the low success rate of the exam.  It is extremely important that we have the motivation after failure.

We all have read stories about the first category of people as they are the achievers and they are the ones who inspire the others to step into this battleground. But today we want to talk about the second and third category of students who too put in their hard work and time but fail to achieve their goal. While these people are not rankers, but by no means are they losers. They fail to achieve their goal in the first few attempts which plays with their mind and confidence and they want to give up on the exams and themselves too. Firstly, we must remember that no matter what the people around you say, you must keep your confidence and motivation intact and move on with greater zeal and prove your caliber and potential as you need to first believe in yourself, to make the world believe in you.

We will begin with the steps that are needed and the process to be followed to get back your confidence and be a warrior again. While controlling the circumstances is not in our hands, but we can control how we navigate failure. While discussing on the ways to motivate yourself we have some steps on helping you recover from your defeat and stand tall to face the battleground again.

A.     Acceptance:  first step to motivate yourself is to wake up from the trance and accept your failure. Accepting your Most of us find it difficult to face our failure and are not willing to accept our mistakes that we have lost. The defeat doesn’t mean you are doubting yourself or tagging yourself as a loser, it just means that being one with the reality and welcoming your failure.

B.     Take responsibility: The normal human tendency is to play the ‘BLAME GAME’. Instead of taking responsibility of our failure we tend to blame it on external factors like parents, friends, teachers, institute etc. But what we tend to forget is that these are only our soldiers, we are the king in this battle, and only if the king is strong will his army be able to help him. So take responsibility of your failure, and accept your mistakes.

C.     Analyze and learn: Living in denial and blaming others maybe very soothing and calms your mind for some time but in the long run it can play with your intellect and hamper your thought process in future. Therefore instead of dazing, wake up, take a pen and paper and analyze what went wrong. Find that one thread which was left loose in your previous attempt, which led to this mistake in your life. And make sure that you never repeat the same mistake again. This will help you to be true to yourself and instead of viewing your attempt as a failure, you will see it as a learning experience for life.

D.     Don’t dwell on failure: Once analyzed and learnt move on. That is the most important part of this process. You can’t dwell on your mistakes in life instead what is required is that you learn from your mistakes and move on in life with double the enthusiasm to achieve your aim.

 Now we come to the part where we discuss on the fourth point of our process to success ‘Don’t dwell on your failure’. Well this might be a difficult task for most of us, but we need to remember that failure can either knock you off your game or it can clear your direction and strengthen your mental toughness. What you choose is totally up to you. So these are the ways to cope up with your failure.

1.      Shift your focus: Instead of sitting idle and thinking about your results all day and night, it is better that you shift your focus towards important things in life. Pick up a book, write down your thoughts, go for a walk, go out with friends and family, or go shopping. Choose whatever brings to you utmost happiness. This exam requires you to sacrifice some of your habits and hobbies, but these aforementioned habits and hobbies are the ones which can actually help you get back to your preparation again. So digging back to your books immediately will only make your recovering process difficult and therefore, you must give yourself a break and choose an activity which lifts your mood up and which shifts your focus from the exam results to the other beautiful things and people you have around.

2.      External motivation: We have heard about great people like Einstein, Thomas Edison, JK Rowling, APJ Abdul Kalam and many more who are a source of inspiration to all of us. So while feeling low you can always pick up a book or watch videos related to such successful people. This will lift up your spirit and make you realize that behind one success, are successive failures and only the people who embrace their failure come out victorious. So it’s the motivation that matters “ Karne ka jazba hona chahiye , safalta to apne aap ayegi “ ; keep yp the spirits and don’t loose hope.

3.      Sweat: It is scientifically proven that physical activity releases mood boosting endorphins and alleviates stress. So you must pick up some physical activity like yoga, zumba, dancing, running, and aerobics whatever you enjoy, add this new activity to your daily routine and you will see how you feel confident, active, motivated and fitter all at the same time.

4.      Rehearse past successes: Life is a bed of roses, you get flowers few times and thorns some other times. You must always remember the flowers, no matter how many thorns pierce you. So whenever failure strikes you always remember your past success, how you attained it, what motivated you and try to relive those moments again and rehearse them aloud. Praise yourself for achieving those milestones. This will not only make you happier, but also inspire you, boost up your confidence and give you the inspiration to study for the exam and face it with more valors again.

5.      Procrastinating never helps: We all have the habit of procrastinating things, which results in either immense happiness or utter sadness, both of which are not good for us. You must remember to live in the moment, give your best to what you do and do not think of what the future holds for you. You have the ability to create your own happiness, so never look for the future to bring you happiness.

6.      Do not question your abilities: Always remember that you are the master of your life and questioning yourself is the worst mistake in life that you will make. No matter how bad the situation is, never doubt or question your abilities. You can change your way of working or even your studying pattern, but never doubt yourself as the day you start to question yourself, it will be the day you will have completely lost the battle. You must instead inspire yourself for the exams.

7.      Communication: ‘Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity’. So instead of letting your thoughts eat you up, try to talk to someone close so that you can discuss your ideas and listen to theirs. It will help you get over the low point of your life and you will be able to identify clearly the next step you need to take in your life to cope up with the failure.