Prosperity is Learning Many Lessons

A lot of my fellow overachieving former gifted student clients are used to understanding new things quickly. They pick up skills at a fast pace and have often been praised about their intelligence. This is great to feel, it really boosts one’s self-esteem. It isn’t so good when that person eventually comes across a skill that takes time to nurture and develop. What happens is that since that person’s sense of self-worth has been tied to doing things well, or their ability to pick up new information quickly, when something is difficult for them, they feel like a failure. They haven’t learned to embrace the process of learning, because they’ve often bypassed the vulnerability that often comes from being a beginner. What we spend a lot of time in therapy doing is reframing those “failures”, to see the inherent success within them. As phrased by Malcolm Forbes: "Failure is success if we learn from it." As we reflect on certain hardships and difficult experiences, our insight presents lessons to carry with us. Within therapy, we name what lessons we’ve taken away and often pause to consider if there are other lessons that we missed. In this, we feel even a greater sense of accomplishment, even from setbacks, because we’re walking away from them stronger and wiser.

"Failure is success if we learn from it."

~ Malcolm Forbes