Maybe failure isn't failing at all...

By Racheal Chapman

What is failure? The dictionary definition of failure is 'a lack of success’ or 'an unsuccessful person or thing’. But what do we deem as failure in everyday life?

Many of us can go through life associating certain things with failure:

• Not getting the grades you’d hoped for

• A baking disaster

• Not passing your driving test

• Losing a sale at work

• Not getting the job you applied for

• Not earning the amount of money you’d like to earn

But what if it was only 'a lack of success' because you were knocking on the wrong doors, venturing down the wrong path, dedicating your time and energy to things that weren’t right for you?

From 2007 to 2017 I defined myself as a teacher. A popular topic of conversation among many, often includes talk of careers. Even among friends and family..... 'How is work going?' 'What's the next step for you in your career?' ' Do you think you'll stay on at your current school?'

Now I was MANY other things besides just being a teacher, but I felt that was what I needed to get across about myself.

So when I decided to take an extended break from my profession in 2017, I became a little lost. In fact I was so lost that I still continued to define myself as a teacher! Not a wife, not a mother, not a Christian, not a musician, not a writer, but a teacher.

In the past year or so, I have knocked on the door of teaching on two more occasions. But both times I was knocked back. Most recently, purely because I had been out of the classroom for too long. But do you know what? This time I did not see it as a lack of success. I did not view myself as I failure. Instead, it confirmed the gut instinct that I’ve had for the past few years....that Teaching isn’t for me any more, or at least at the moment. And I was ok with that. Infact I even had a glass of wine to celebrate that I am now certain that classroom teaching is not the direction I should be heading in at the moment.

So, as hard as it may seem, try to look at things from a different perspective. Your perception of failure, of a lack of success may in fact be far from that. It may even be an opportunity...