The comments from Abby Wambach in the commencement at Barnard College in New York City are a great reminder. She refers to the “gift of failure” and it is the right reminder about how to react to losses. It applies to losing a game or failing to meet your goals. You can learn more from your game film in a losing game than a winning game. Don’t hide your failure. Learn from it or you end up wasting it.
“Here’s something the best athletes understand, but seems like a harder concept for non-athletes to grasp. Non-athletes don’t know what to do with the gift of failure. So they hide it, pretend it never happened, reject it outright, and they end up wasting it. Listen: Failure is not something to be ashamed of, it’s something to be powered by. Failure is the highest octane fuel your life can run on. You gotta learn to make failure your fuel.
Abby Wambach
Read the full article at: http://changingthegameproject.com/make-failure-your-fuel
Doug DeVries has been working in youth basketball for over 25 years. He has a passion to see sports in balance in life, for kids to thrive in sports, and for parents to enjoy the entire process.