Bloom North's #bloombounceback event!

Following a great afternoon of insight at Bloom North’s #bloombounceback event, our very own Recruitment Operations Manager, Rachel Wilson, has kindly shared with us a run-down of the event and some of the most powerful points she took away from the day.

“To stop failing means to stop trying” says Claire Hannah, Radio Journalist and PR Specialist.

I spent the afternoon at Bloom North’s #bloombounceback, where we discussed professional and personal ‘failures’ and how to bounce back from them. The panel was made up of Karen Greig, Lucy Sharp, Chris Broadbent, Claire Hannah and Dionne Maxwell, each bringing their own experiences of failures.

Failure is a subjective term, one person’s failure is another’s success, so in truth, we discussed perceived failures and how to overcome them. For example, Dionne discussed how she links failures to tests and “life isn’t a test”, so she sees perceived failures as things she can learn and grow from; choices that can change our course in life.

Chris agreed that ‘failure’ has negative connotations, so he prefers to see them as challenges too; things that come along on the “ferris wheel of life” to test us. We tend to be judged by our successes, so to be unsuccessful is deemed a failure. “Perspective is an amazing thing,” he told us, “to compare (to others) and despair” will only lead to failure, both personally and professionally.

Social Media is often used as a tool to compare our lives to others (whether consciously or not), which can have a negative impact on our own lives. However, Claire highlighted that not many people would publish their failings for the world to see, so our Social Media pages are filled with people being stereotypically successful. It’s important to take this with a pinch of salt and remember that Social Media is merely the real world as seen through rose-tinted glasses. The perfect Instagram life often doesn’t match up to reality; it doesn’t highlight necessary failings, key obstacles that we overcome to ultimately become a ‘better’ person.

How do we bounce-back from these so-called ‘failures’? Karen Greig sees them as learning points; as a moment in time when you can ask yourself ‘what next?’, ‘how do we now get to where we want to be?’. She believes in setting targets, no matter how small, to recover from the setback and go on to better things. Everyone is on a journey, it’s how you deal with the obstacles and come out the other side.

Lucy was a self-confessed ‘people pleaser’ in work, and believes that sometimes it’s the pressure we put on ourselves that make us believe we have failed in ways that no one else sees. The realisation of ‘I’m not too bad’ is key to overcoming any failures that we come up against. Realising that your dream job doesn’t bring you happiness could be seen as a failure but is it really? Accepting that you’ve made the wrong decision and correcting it could lead to happiness in the future.

Three key learnings:

As we come across failures in our lives, it’s important to try and not let it keep us down. Set targets, devise a plan to overcome the obstacles and progress. This applies to both our professional and personal lives. Talking to someone can help, whether it’s a professional, a mentor or a friend, they can offer objective advice to help set these targets and form a plan.
Throughout life, it’s important to look for the positives. Yes, something may not have worked out the way you wanted it to, but what went well? What did you do right? Take the positives and use them to influence your next steps in life.
Failing is a part of life; we will all fail at something in our lives and I think it’s important to do so. Without failing first, how will we know we’re on the correct path in the end? There is no positive without negative.

Thank you, Rachel, for sharing this with us! Hopefully, everyone can take something away from this and next time something doesn’t go quite to plan don’t let it get you down – learn from it instead! Failure is inevitable and always remember, just because you can’t see everyone else’s ‘failures’, it doesn’t mean they’re not happening. You’re not alone!

If you’d like to hear some of this fantastic knowledge first hand, why not have a look at some of Bloom North’s upcoming events here!

To read more of our latest blogs click here.

Check out our marketing jobs here.

Check out our latest creative jobs here.

Check out our latest digital jobs here.

For all our analytics jobs click here.

Share

Sign Up To Our Newsletter