Failure is a very personal and intimate concept. Some people consider themselves a failure if they do not earn a certain amount of money, while others consider themselves a failure if they do not reach their long-term personal goals. The main issue that all people that experience failure need to grasp is that failure is not a singular incident. Failure is a process that we allow to occur on many different levels before we even realize that it is occurring. Failure is a systematic breakdown of our focus on a mental, emotional, and finally a physical level.

Our mental framework is based on a simple principle that has been ingrained in human beings since our appearance on this planet. The concept I make reference to is commonly known as the “Fight or Flight Instinct”. Every time a person faces extreme pressure situations, they make a series of seemingly innocuous choices that determine the outcome of their situation. The first choice made is typically the decision of whether to stay and face the difficulty; or instead, to turn tail and run. As a competitor, people make the attempt to stay and face the difficulty. If they choose otherwise, than all is lost. The second choice that people make in pressure situations is the way they allow themselves to interpret the thoughts that begin to stream through their mind. Simply put, the competitor chooses to view the energy burst they are experiencing as either nerves or anxiety, which typically has a negative impact, or they can view the feeling as eagerness, commonly a positive connotation. By deciding to view the energy as either nerves or anxiety, the competitor begins to view the upcoming competition as an impending terror experience. By making a conscious choice to view the feelings as eagerness, or as positive excitement for the competition, they condition their mind to process the upcoming events in a more positive manner. This reprogramming technique can be practiced by the competitor simply verbalizing their positive perspective aloud. The truth is that as a competitor, your opponent is likely to be experiencing identical feelings. If a competitor is able to positively view the feelings in their mind, than that competitor will have a more positive mindset when the time to compete arrives.
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