Chrissy Birtwistle wrote an article featured on Forbes about her experience representing GB Women at the European Championships of Beach Ultimate in Calafell, Spain. She described her teams’ failure and how it helped them to strive for success.
Birtwistle talks about her time with the the GB team and how they trained for six months, with their intent only being the winners of their upcoming championship. She relates that part of the process was truly believing they would win, as it provides confidence. Having fear can destroy you.
But they didn’t win. Instead they came in fourth place which means they didn’t even get medals. She depicted the devastating loss and how it affected the team.
“We had arrived at the tournament assuming we would win, or at the very least secure a medal. We didn’t manage either.
As I sat there, exhausted and on the verge of tears, I realised that we will have learned so much more, as players and as people, from losing than we ever would have from winning.”
Birtwistle’s realization is something that we here at Failure Blog have a strong belief in. Failure can actually lead you to success. Her final thoughts really bring that sentiment home.
“Being prepared to fail means you are ready to take the risk to succeed.”