Sarah Wells | Talk Boutique Salon: The Other ‘F’ Word, Failure
Olympian Sarah Wells spoke of failure through the eyes of an athlete where success is measured in fractions of a second. She related a difficult story of her trials for the World Junior Championships in Beijing where nerves and a torrential downpour kept her off her stride, resulting in a spectacular wipeout early in the race. She expressed her deep determination, drive and pursuit of success as she shared stories of her countless efforts and how she now sees each failure as simply a hurdle to overcome. Regardless of the injuries, the weather, the mental self-talk, Sarah continues to see herself as a winner.
This intense focus on what she can do instead of what she did do is what drives her forward. She left us with a poignant picture of her lying on her driveway in the fetal position crying after not qualifying for the 2016 games. She added, “Mistakes and failures are always part of the story. People are more inspired by the times I didn’t make the games than when I did.” She points out that we need to feel the pain and the disappointment of failure and then move on and get back up. Sarah says, “So what if you didn’t get the job, your relationship ended, you experienced a poor performance review, you lost the client… Reflect and then simply GET. BACK. UP.”