Starting in elementary school, we were asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

From that point on we are expected to be thinking about a road that will eventually lead us to where these childhood fantasies might have started. And sure, we all change our minds and are told the sky is the limit, but who is there to tell us what is going to happen along the way to our version of the top?

During the journey of pursuing our dreams, I think we focus on what our accomplishments are, but we do not focus on what actually happened to get to these points.

When we answered our elementary school teachers about what we wanted to be when we grow up with jobs like an astronaut, artist or a scientist, we idolized these professions, and we probably still do.

I think this makes us forget that while these people with our childhood dream jobs might constantly be rewarded for their achievements, they are still humans just like us who messed up and learned to get where they are today.

While raising the bar is a great thing to do for yourself, it can be intimidating to have such high expectations that might seem unreachable, and I think focusing so heavily on the positive has put us under the impression that mistakes are to be avoided at all costs.

Personally, I have found myself dwelling on my failures, but I have recently realized you cannot let yourself continue to put salt in your wound.

You just have to learn how to tend to that wound for the next fight with life, and make sure you dodge the next blow if it is coming your way.

If anything, I have learned more from failing more than I have from succeeding. Seeing our failures gives us the chance to take a step back and see how we can better ourselves.

I’m not saying go fail a final to find out how you can improve every aspect of your life, but I think there are better and more positive ways of looking at failures.

Constantly looking at our accomplishments and pretending like we are not capable of doing anything wrong can make a person arrogant and unrealistic.

It is healthier to look at your failures so you can use them as stepping stones in bettering yourself in whatever you are trying to accomplish.

I know it can hurt to feel like you have not done something right, but I promise the world will not crumble around you. Life tends to work itself out (somehow).