7A: You only fail if you stop trying.

Failure has a big impact on people in their everyday lives.  I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.  Not everyone can win, not everyone can be successful, and not everyone can achieve that complete comfort zone in their everyday life; that place in life where there is no room for improvement, known as “winning.”  Based on the culture we live in, people are taught to believe that we can achieve anything if we try hard enough.  Unfortunately, that is just not true.  Failure is inevitable.  People don’t always understand how hard it is to face and achieve all their goals on their first try.  Sometimes you may get lucky and the first try is all you will need to overcome something.  But, that does not happen every time. You need to fail sometimes in order to improve and accomplish your goals.  According to J.K. Rowling, “Achievable goals: the first step to self-improvement.”

Failure is important for children to understand and they should be able to experience it.  Children are absolutely allowed to fail and it should be expected.  In fact, when they first start competing or playing games for more than “fun”, they are encouraged to fail.  Failing teaches children how to win and lose.  After all, no one likes a sore winner or a sore loser.  Failure will help children learn to cope with whatever happens at the end of the game.  Also, failure eventually helps children to become winners.  No one likes to fail.  The natural thing to do after you fail at something is to practice more and keep trying.  This teaches children to develop goals and a good work ethic.  It teaches them to see things through and to be persistent.  I am not saying that children must fail all the time, because that will cause self- esteem issues.  Children should fail just as much as they succeed. 

When it comes to children, it is important to talk to them about their failures.  You have to make sure they know that it is

ok if they failed, as long as they learn from it.   This is important for adults too.  Especially people that are under pressure.  There should always be a safe place for people to go and discuss their mistakes, learn their lesson and be supported in a judgment free zone.  No one should be embarrassed of their failure.