How to keep yourself motivated even after successive failures?

Motivation after Failure

Failure isn’t the end of a journey, instead, it is just an experience you have while on your way to success.

While thinking of exams like ESE or GATE we mostly come across three types of students/aspirants. First are the winners who prepare for the exam, crack it and happily move on in their journey towards excellence. Second, are the ones, who take the first step of preparing for the exam, but due to failure once or twice have given up and feel like they have lost a part of their life gaining nothing. Some also go to the heights of losing their confidence and thus refuse to make a new start. The third category is that of the fearers who step back contemplating that it is a tough nut to crack given the low success rate of the exam. We must be motivated after failure.

We all have read stories about the first category of people as they are the achievers and they are the ones who inspire others to step into this battleground.  But, today we want to talk about the second and third category of students who too put in their hard work and time but fail to achieve their goals. While these people are not rankers, by no means are they losers. They fail to achieve their goal in the first few attempts that play with their mind and confidence and want to give up on the exams and themselves too.

Firstly, we must remember that no matter what the people around us say, you must keep your confidence and motivation intact. Then, you must move on with greater zeal, and prove your caliber and potential as you need to first believe in yourself, to make the world believe in you.

We will begin with the steps that are needed and the process to be followed to get back your confidence and be a warrior again. While controlling the circumstances is not in our hands, we can control how we navigate failure. While discussing the ways to motivate yourself we have some steps on helping you recover from your defeat and stand tall to face the battleground again.

1. Acceptance: Most of us find it difficult to face our failures and are not willing to accept the mistakes that we have lost. The first step to motivating yourself is to wake up from the trance and accept your failure. Accepting your defeat does not mean you are doubting yourself or tagging yourself as a loser, it just means being one with the reality and welcoming your failure.
2. Take responsibility: The normal human tendency is to play the ‘BLAME GAME’. Instead of taking responsibility for our failure, we tend to blame it on external factors like parents, friends, teachers, institutes, etc. But what we tend to forget is that these are only our soldiers, we are the king in this battle, and only if the king is strong will his army be able to help him. So take responsibility for your failure, and accept your mistakes.
3. Analyze and learn: Living in denial and blaming others may be very soothing and calms your mind for some time but in the long term, it can play with your intellect and hamper your thought process in the future. Therefore, instead of dazing, wake up, take a pen and paper and analyze what went wrong. Find that one thread that was left loose in your previous attempt, which led to this mistake in your life. And make sure that you never repeat the same mistake. It will help you to be true to yourself and instead of viewing your attempt as a failure, you will see it as a learning experience for life.
4. Don’t dwell on failure: Once analyzed and learned, learn to move on. That is the most important part of this process. You can’t dwell on your mistakes in life instead what is required is that you learn from your mistakes and move on in life with double the enthusiasm to achieve your aim.
   Now we come to the part where we discuss the fourth point of our process to success ‘Don’t dwell on your failure’. Well, this might be a difficult task for most of us, but we need to remember that either failure can knock you off your game or it can clear your direction and strengthen your mental toughness. What you choose is totally up to you. So these are the ways to cope with your failure.

1. Shift your focus: Instead of sitting idle and thinking about your results all day and night, you should shift your focus towards important things in life. Pick up a book, write down your thoughts, go for a walk, go out with friends and family, or go shopping. Choose whatever brings to you the utmost happiness. This exam requires you to sacrifice some of your habits and hobbies, but these aforementioned habits and hobbies are the ones that can help you get back to your preparation again. So digging back to your books immediately will only make your recovery process difficult. Therefore, you must give yourself a break and choose an activity, which lifts your mood and shifts your focus from the exam results to the other beautiful things and people you have around.
2. External motivation: We have heard about great people like Einstein, Thomas Edison, JK Rowling, APJ Abdul Kalam, and many more who are a source of inspiration to all of us. So while feeling low you can always pick up a book or watch videos related to such successful people. It will lift your spirit and make you realize that behind one success, are successive failures, and only the people who embrace their failure come out victorious. It will inspire you to study well for the exams. You can always watch topper’s talk on MADE EASY channel where many toppers talk about initial failures but later on conquered the examination. So It’s the motivation that matters “Karne ka jazba hona chahiye, safalta to apne aap ayegi”; keep up the spirits and don’t lose hope.
3. Sweat: It is scientifically proven that physical activity releases mood-boosting endorphins and alleviates stress. Therefore, you must pick up some physical activity like yoga, zumba, dancing, running, and aerobics whatever you enjoy, add this new activity to your daily routine and you will see how you feel confident, active, motivated, and fitter all at the same time.
4. Rehearse past successes: Life is a bed of roses, you get flowers a few times and thorns some other times. You must always remember the flowers, no matter how many thorns pierce you. Therefore, whenever failure strikes you always remember your past success, how you attained it, and motivating factors, and try to relive those moments again and rehearse them aloud. Praise yourself for achieving those milestones. This will not only make you happier but also inspire you, boost up your confidence and give you the inspiration to study for the exam and face it with more valor again.
5. Procrastinating never helps: We all have the habit of procrastinating things, which results in either immense happiness or utter sadness, both of which are not good for us. You must remember to live in the moment, give your best to what you do, and not think of what the future holds for you. You can create your own happiness, so never look for the future to bring you happiness.
6. Do not question your abilities: Always remember that you are the master of your life and questioning yourself is the worst mistake in life that you will make. No matter how bad the situation is, never doubt or question your abilities. You can change your way of working or even your studying pattern, but never doubt yourself as the day you start to question yourself, it will be the day you will have completely lost the battle. You must instead inspire yourself for the exams.
7. Communication: ‘Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity’. So instead of letting your thoughts eat you up, try to talk to someone close so that you can discuss your ideas and listen to theirs. It will help you get over the low point of your life and you will be able to identify the next step you need to take in your life to cope up with the failure.
8. Always remember your goal: No matter how hard life hits you, you must never forget who you are and what your goals in life are. At the end of the race, the loser is not the one who falters, but the one who refuses to get up. So be a champion and not a quitter.  So wake up and inspire yourself for the exam again.
9. Life goes on: The most important philosophy that one must keep in mind while preparing for this exam is ‘LIFE GOES ON’. An exam neither shapes nor destroys your destiny or future. If life closes one door it will open many other doors for you, so instead of getting all sad and low take the failure right on its face and move on.

5. Start afresh: Having mentioned all the points which will motivate and help you to get over your failure, what helps the most and is of utmost importance is that you start new. You must get back into the game and work harder for your victory. ‘Winners never quit and quitters never win’ so keeping in mind all the past mistakes and shortcomings you must get back to your books and provide motivation to study for the exam.

Now, let us learn answers to queries related to motivation for exams.

How to motivate yourself to study hard for exams?

If you are thinking about the best ways to motivate yourself, then make sure to read the following effective ways to do it without getting overwhelmed.

• Believe you can achieve it: It is the first step to achieving your desired marks or rank in the respective competitive exam. Once you start believing that you have the ability to achieve it irrespective of the circumstances, you will manifest the desired results with much ease. This way, you will have the right level of motivation to study hard and put yourself on the right track.
• Ask those who have done it: Yes, you heard that right! You need to get into a habit of asking the right questions to the right people before it is too late. Make sure you ask your queries or doubts to those who have achieved it due to their consistent dedication and focused effort towards the same exam. Research well before you decide to ask your queries to a particular person. This way, you will know the right path to study hard and secure the best possible scores in your exam.
• Get a mentor: Search for a mentor online or offline. You must ensure that you take sufficient time to finalize your mentor, as your mentor will contribute to most of your exam preparation-related plans and decisions, thus influencing your motivation for exam and its results. Keep your exam preparation-related plans and execution transparent with your mentor. It will help you avoid getting off track during your steady study hours.
• Avoid depending on one source of motivation: Most students find out one source of motivation to study hard for exams. It is usually a good step, but you must not risk your exam preparation efforts and hard work to one source. Create at least 2-3 motivational sources to draw positive energy toward your exam preparation journey. This way, you will continue to study hard for your exams irrespective of their type and score your best in your exam attempts.
• Stay calm: Calmness can take you to great heights of success. You need to keep your mind calm and avoid distractions that divert you from your efforts and goals. Practice meditation and yoga and mix it up with aerobic exercises to build a calm mind and release stress and negative energy from your body. You will experience the thoughts on failure fade away with routine practice. This way, you will have a strong base upon which you can build your castle of exam success.

How to be motivated to study?

Most students struggle to study properly and dedicate the required time to their study schedule. Therefore, it becomes important to motivate yourself and build the right level of study motivation throughout the journey.

• Just do it: If you think a lot about the motivation for the exam, then you need to take a pause and focus on actions. Take one step at a time but just do it. Pick up one topic in the decided subject. Study it well and prepare notes for later rounds of revision.
• Accept that it is not always possible: We are human beings and it is quite natural to have a less productive day. Do not blame yourself or anyone for that. Accept it and make sure you balance it on the next day. However, take the responsibility to avoid having many such days on which you skip your study sessions to maintain the right level of exam motivation.
• Avoid comparisons: You will see your friends or batchmates studying day and night in front of you. Do not think that they will excel and you will fail. Get rid of the thoughts on failure. You must have confidence in yourself and your dedicated efforts towards the exam. This is an ideal way to motivate yourself for your crucial exams and achieve excellence.

Failure is not what defines you; instead, it teaches you the best lessons of life. You must accept the failure with contentment rather than getting all low and sad and underconfident about it. The failures of life that define who you are and make you a better person, manager, engineer, etc. As science graduates our greatest idle is Thomas Edison who very proudly said that ‘I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work’. So always motivate yourself because it’s your life and remember to make it large as it will be an inspiration to the coming generation.