How to Succeed in Online School When You Feel Like a Failure

Let’s face it, we all fail at some point in our lives. It doesn’t matter if you are the most talented person in the world, a high performer, a high school dropout, or a teen just doing the best you can. Finishing school isn’t easy and it can be extra difficult when you just need to get through each day. 

Acknowledge what went wrong before

It’s tempting to get down on ourselves when we fail. We want to wallow in our failures and get down on ourselves for not being like those who did succeed. While it’s not useful to wallow forever, there is some benefit to reflecting on what happened. We should acknowledge what went wrong so we can avoid doing the same thing again later. You might be interested to know that failure is a necessary part of life that comes before success. 



You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

—Maya Angelou

...Failure is a necessary part of life that comes before success. 

Take it step-by-step

Breaking down your goals into small steps is a powerful strategy for achieving success. Start by taking your high-level plan and breaking it down into smaller parts. If you can attach deadlines to those parts, it can push you to get them done faster. 

When we set big, complex goals, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. Breaking those goals down into smaller, manageable steps makes it easier to take action and make progress.

Track and celebrate small successes

celebrate successes

By breaking down your goals into small steps, you can track your progress more easily. Each small step you take brings you closer to achieving your overall goal, and you'll be able to see your progress along the way.


Also, every time you reach a milestone, make sure to celebrate it. Celebrating small successes along the way can help you stay motivated and focused. By breaking your goals down into small steps, you can celebrate each step you take and feel a sense of accomplishment, which can help you stay motivated and committed to achieving your goal.


Adjust and adapt your plans

Things change. Breaking your goals down into small steps also lets you adjust and adapt your plan as needed. If you encounter obstacles or challenges along the way, you can make changes to your approach without losing sight of your ultimate goal.  Being flexible with your plan is important to make sure you can go with things as the environment changes around you and will help you stay motivated


Build momentum

Taking small, consistent steps toward your goal builds momentum and helps you develop positive habits. This can create a snowball effect, where each small success builds on the last and helps you achieve even more. Overall, breaking down your goals into small steps can help you overcome overwhelm, track progress, celebrate success, adjust and adapt, and build momentum.


Failure is an essential part of success because it provides us with valuable learning experiences that can help us grow and improve. Failure can lead to new opportunities: Even when we fail, we can learn from the experience and use what we've learned to pursue new opportunities or approaches. These new opportunities may lead to even greater success than we originally envisioned.

Overall, failure is an essential part of success because it helps us learn, builds resilience, pushes us out of our comfort zone, can be a catalyst for innovation, and can lead to new opportunities. Rather than being afraid of failure, we should be open to it as it is an opportunity to grow and improve. Just because you failed at something once doesn’t mean you can’t try it again. 


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