Today I blogged for readers who just found out that they failed the bar exam. The same sad, angry, and frustrated feelings occur when we experience other kinds of “set back” and the same opportunities to learn from the past and succeed going forward present themselves. Seize them!
- Did you get lower grades than you wanted this year? Get on a mission to figure out how to get better grades going forward. Talk to professors, classmates who did well, review your old exams. Figure out what you did and did not do and how to change your patterns to achieve better results next time.
- Did you not get a job or internship you wanted? Ask people on the hiring committee very politely if you could have just a few minutes of their time to find out how you can improve your resume, cover letter, or interviewing presence. Find out what they were looking for and see how that differs from what you gave them. Talk with experts in your career services center. Show them your resume. And, begin applying for other jobs implementing some of the new strategies you are learning.
- Did not get on that fitness routine you promised yourself? Problem solve. Figure out what stopped you. Did you just not make time? Calendar time to exercise as if it were a date with the person you want to see more than anyone on the planet, or as if it were an appointment with a specialist that you waited months to see. Or did you expect too much, do too much at first and feel sore and defeated? Start slowly. Just find time for a short walk today. Then, build up to a longer more robust routine.
- Did not get to dabble in online learning tools. Perhaps you are a professor and just finished a great semester where you taught many wonderful things but did not get to the learning you had been wanting to do about online tools you have heard might supplement your teaching in new and innovative ways. Make this summer your time to learn a bit about distance learning, and how today’s students learn best.
So, if you are a law student, read this post as is. But if you are not a law student, substitute the words “failed bar exam” for any other “set back” you recently experienced and problem solve about turning that into a powerful step forward in the future. The same sorts of struggles and potential triumphs will most likely apply in some important ways to you.
Failed the bar exam? Re-frame this “set back” as an empowering opportunity to learn to succeed going forward.)
Bottom line, we all know the phrase turning “lemons into lemonade,” let’s try today to turn last year’s “set backs” into leaps forward for next year!
Law School & Bar Exam Success 