A lesson I learnt this Father’s day: Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Yesterday, on Father’s Day, I was with my 6 year old son, Samrajya, helping him participate in a district level Roller Skating event. This was Samrajya’s first sports competition, let alone participating at the district level. What was supposed to be just a race for him to experience, was the day I learnt much more.

He made it through the qualifiers of his first race, and during the finals he lost focus momentarily and went wide on the curve, tripped and fell down injuring his arm with a loud scream. That morning I was casually prepping him if such an event would occur, though not sure if he actually registered it. I told him that during race day when everyone is pushing their limits there might be falls and injuries. And that I’m not allowed into the skating rink, which meant he shouldn’t cry, or wait for someone to pick him up. It’s his race, he is responsible for any falls, and so he should pick himself up and finish the race no matter what. And that at the end of it, I’ll be there to look after him, and it will all be fine. But it was his first fall, in his first competition, there were hundreds of parents and participants from other clubs who were watching, and it was the finals. I thought it was too much for him to handle, and at that moment I thought his race was all but over. Just then, without calling out for help, he picked himself up and pushed on to finish the race in 3rd position. He made it home in the evening with his first ever medals (a silver and a bronze), proudly displaying them along with his battle scars. As a Father, my proudest moment of the day was when he picked himself up after the fall and went on to finish his first race.

We all work so hard, focused solely on winning and the celebrations after that. We’ve seldom spent time to prep our children, our family, our colleagues or our teams on how to handle failures and setbacks well before they occur, be it in sports, life or at work. One has to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Winning or losing today is not the end of the race. It is only a beginning, an experience for another big race day. How could you be better prepared for that big day, if you haven’t yet had your falls or importantly learnt from it? So stop dreading about failures, because that will take your focus off the finish line. Never give up on your goals, and pull yourself up to get there. We live in times when success is often measured by our wins, and not the experience we have gained through our falls, and how not to fail the next time a challenge is thrown at us. Failures have made many give up at their first attempt, drop their dreams, go down into depression and some even worse. Today is not the finish line, the future is. So how can a fall today ever hurt you, if you’re prepared to handle it?