09/10/2026
I went with Emilie Echelle today to go see Shannon Miller speak . She was amazing and I wish i could have taken every athlete in my gym. After we were able to get pictures, I asked her "what advise do you have for athletes who struggle with failure and just give up instead of get up" ( Me nudging someone).
She replied fail fast and fail often. Thats where we learn. She also spoke about doing the work! Every day even when you didn't feel like it. Here is a interview that summarizes her lecture today which isn't just about a sport but life.
" It comes down to grit. I love Angela Duckworth’s book. It does come down to do you have the grit? Do you have the work ethic to get the job done? Not on game day, but every single day. Do you go in and say, I’m just going to give it all I have today? Then tomorrow I’m going to get up and I’m going to give it all I have on that day. You just have to keep doing that.It comes down to grit. I love Angela Duckworth’s book. It does come down to do you have the grit? Do you have the work ethic to get the job done? Not on game day, but every single day. Do you go in and say, I’m just going to give it all I have today? Then tomorrow I’m going to get up and I’m going to give it all I have on that day. You just have to keep doing that.look back at my Olympic career and I think of failure. That’s something we all deal with at different portions of our life and different goals that we have.
I think gymnastics and sports really prepare you to understand that failure is part of the process. It’s not the end game. You’re going to be working on a company, and I’ll hit a roadblock or go to bed thinking this is never going to work. I don’t know how this can possibly work. This isn’t a good idea. Then right before I fall asleep, I’ll think, yeah, but that’s what I thought on that really bad day when I couldn’t hit a beam routine to save my life. I fell 50 times on that skill. I never thought I was going to make it. It took me two years to learn it and finally get it to my feet. I’ve been here before. I know what failure feels like. I know what it looks like. I know that there’s a way forward.
That helps me wake up the next day and go, all right, yesterday wasn’t working, but how can I change things today so we can move forward? How can I find that next forward step after the failure, after the fall, after landing literally on my face 10 times in the gym? How do I pick myself up and take that next forward step?
We always learn so much more through our mistakes and our failures than we ever do in our success. Success feels good, but you don’t really learn that much from it. Failure is where you learn if you’re willing to pay attention, if you’re willing to say, okay, let’s examine this. Why did it not work? Then leave it behind and move forward. "
FAIL FORWARD.
