Celebrating Failure

A time I failed this semester was when my girlfriend and I came to the realization that our plans to move out of state this summer were not to be. I had received a job offer from an old boss now living in Tennessee. This offer and its location seemed to provide exactly what we were looking for so we perused a plan to be moved up there by this summer. I had already made arrangements with my current job to let them know of my plans and we had both told our families, who all live in this area. However about a month ago we reached a point where a decision to stay or go had to be made and we had to accept the fact that we weren't going to be able to leave due to a number of factors, money being the most paramount.

I learned a great deal from this experience. When the offer was first made to me, neither my girlfriend nor I could find any real flaw in our plan. In hindsight we both had a major confirmation bias. The facts that forced us to reconsider our plan were present from the beginning, but we refused to see them. This incident taught me to be much more objective in my decision making and goal setting. I have to force my self to weigh all of the facts, not just the ones that support my argument.

Failure is certainly embarrassing. When I had to tell my boss and my family that I wasn't going I felt almost ashamed of myself. As I stated above I was forced to re-evaluate the way I make decisions and set goals. I try to handle failure by moving past it and focusing on bettering myself. I do not like to dwell, although sometimes it really can't be helped. I think the challenges this class has presented and my own reflections in the assignments has helped my handling of risk to some measurable degree. Next time I plan a major life change I will be able to follow through.