Failing Forward: Why Failure Is the Unsung Hero of Mental Strength

Brock Sawyer
16 minutes ago
3 min read

Welcome to this week’s Wellness Wednesday—where we shift the focus from just training the body… to strengthening the mind.

In athletics—and in life—failure is inevitable. But what if failure isn’t something to avoid? What if it’s something to embrace?

What if the key to building mental toughness isn’t found in avoiding mistakes, but in learning from them?

The Misunderstood Gift of Failure

In the performance-driven world of sports, failure is often viewed as weakness. The missed free throw. The fumble. The game-losing strikeout. We wear our defeats like shame, hoping no one notices. But true mental health begins when we stop fearing failure and start using it.

Legendary leadership expert John C. Maxwell says it this way:

“The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”

He coined the phrase “Fail Forward”—a mindset that transforms every setback into a setup for a comeback.

That concept doesn’t just apply in leadership circles—it’s lived out every day on the court, in the locker room, and in the training room.

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot… and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan

The GOAT didn’t succeed in spite of his failures. He succeeded because of them.

What made MJ great wasn’t just skill—it was the mental resilience to keep shooting after the miss. To trust the process after the loss. To lace up again, not with shame—but with intentional growth.

Mental Health Means You Don’t Have to Be Perfect

Let’s say that again for the athlete in the back: You don’t have to be perfect to be powerful.

Mental health isn’t about always being okay. It’s about being honest when you’re not… and still showing up. It’s about facing the fear of failure, the pressure to perform, and the weight of comparison—and choosing to keep moving.

Athletes today are carrying more than just their gear. They’re carrying expectations, criticism, social media pressure, and personal battles most people never see. And sometimes, the heaviest thing to carry… is failure.

But what if we reframed it?

What if we taught young athletes that failure isn’t the end of the story—it’s the chapter that makes the rest of the story worth telling?

Fail Forward, On Purpose

Here’s how to fail forward in practical terms:

Pause, then process. Don’t brush off the failure. Sit with it. Ask what it can teach you.
Detach from identity. You are not your mistakes. You’re not the turnover, the red mark, or the lost deal.
Extract the lesson. Every failure has a gift hidden inside. Your job is to find it.
Get back in the game. The bravest move is always to try again.

At Vision Sporting Goods, we’re not just about outfitting teams. We’re about equipping hearts and minds. We believe in gear that performs—and people who persevere.