By: Edvard Kadič
Over the last few months, I have been following the media and social networks more intensively, especially comments, articles and responses related to vaccination. Of course, this is due to the fact that I have accepted an invitation to work with the government on communication support for vaccination. When this became known on social media, I was in a way surprised at how much anger I reaped on the one hand and how much approval on the other. Of course, I liked the approval, but I do not like the rude comments, personal discredits and evil writings of various “bloggers” who cannot boast of anything in life except writing at the behest of their masters.
It is the last part, i.e. personal discrediting, that is, of course, a reflection of the frustrations of writers and commentators who cannot get out of their personal misery and fear that they will not succeed in life with their own work, but only by giving the results of others to nothing and presenting themselves as successful. If they were capable, the clients would probably hire them, and not the ones they comment on so bitterly, right? Failure is a cruel field and a heavy burden for everyone. Have you ever avoided an obligation or a project just because you were afraid of failure? Let’s be realistic, no one likes defeats and failures. None of us wants to feel ineffective, weak, or otherwise bad about our work. It is precisely with such feelings that we are filled with failure. I giggled indulgently to myself for quite some time, after I once read somewhere that failure basically does not exist at all. How the hell does it not exist, when I myself have proven it a few times before that it does exist? Such thinking, however, only lasted until I realised that failure exists only after you acknowledge it. Interestingly, the concept of “failure” is also defined by the Fran portal as “the fact that one does not achieve what they want with their work and efforts”. So, it is something that only begins to exist when we acknowledge it, i.e. when we admit that we did not achieve what we wanted. What if we do not admit it? That we do not admit it is over? The longer we wonder about all this, the more it becomes clear that it is primarily our personal understanding of the situation that has arisen, and not some kind of objective fact. If you believe you failed, then you failed. If you believe that you did not succeed, then you did not. If you believe you cannot succeed, you really cannot. If you believe you cannot handle the tension and stress before a final win, then you cannot win. Failure or defeat is born the moment we decide that we will no longer strive for the ultimate goal.
What if we do not give up? What if we continue step by step until we succeed? Then failure does not exist, does it? Does it sound like some kind of cheap psychology? No matter how it sounds, it is very simple. I did not say it is easy, but that it is simple. Here are three tips to help you stay focused on your goal, regardless of the circumstances, evil words and the spanners in the works:
First, there is no surrender. In the vast majority of cases, people surrender without even realising it at first. They are determined to do everything to achieve their goals until the circumstances change, i.e. until the results are not yet fully seen and the criticism at their expense is getting louder. Everyone would like to succeed until they realise what the price of their success will be. Then most get scared. Do not do this. Do not give up until you are at the finish line.
Second, watch out for the deadlines. Of course, we need to define deadlines for implementation in the objectives. However, keep in mind that circumstances can change significantly, sometimes literally overnight. We may not have any influence on these changes and we will only be able to observe helplessly. Examples of changes in circumstances over which we had no influence in the vaccination project were, for example, the withholding of the possibility of registration by the Information Commissioner (which significantly delayed vaccination itself) and the uncertainty of vaccine delivery times. However, let us consider the law of nature, which says: either it adapts or it dies. The resulting new situation means an opportunity to move forward, unless, of course, we agree it to die (defeat, failure).
Third, defeat in one battle does not mean defeat in an entire war. The difference between a good and an excellent general is mainly that a good one can win, but an excellent one can not only win, but he can also occasionally withdraw – so that in the end he wins completely. Stagnation in front of an individual obstacle and abandonment of efforts to achieve a goal are two completely different matters. Stagnation in front of an obstacle means nothing more than that it is not yet time to end. That we do not know something yet and that we need to find a way forward. That is all. Stagnation does not mean that we are not successful, that we are weak, that we will never achieve our goals. It means, above all, that we are not done yet. We need to persevere, move forward and find a way through, past or over obstacles, all the way to the goal.
Edvard Kadič is a publicist, communication expert, specialising in the field of non-verbal communication. He is also the author of several books.