Overcoming anxiety related to exam results helps in forming positive and empowering beliefs in the future.
Having dedicated so much of your life to study and education, exam results can feel monumental in determining futures, shaping career paths or needing to make alternative plans.
Exam results can feel like a validation of effort, or sadly it can also make people feel like a complete failure. These experiences can form long-lasting beliefs that can have life-changing consequences in terms of future prospects and how people feel about themselves.
However, exam results really needn’t be the defining moment of anyone’s life, there are many inspiring examples of people who have succeeded despite never having an education, or who have failed many, many times in order to finally succeed. This article will provide inspirational tools and techniques to excel regardless of your exam results.
If you or anyone you know struggling with overcoming anxiety surrounding exam results, then this is for you…
Successful People Who Have Failed At School
Albert Einstein
They may have not been able to predict his behavior at school, but he was able to predict the behavior of all things, through his theory of relativity.
Albert Einstein, often referred to as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th Century and a Nobel Prize winner for physics, was expelled from school and described by one of his teachers as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He did not speak until he was four years old and couldn’t read until he was seven. He was refused entrance to the Zurich Polytechnic School, yet went on to achieve great things, including the theory of relativity and the equation E=MC2.
Winston Churchill
Did you know that Winston Churchill had to repeat a grade during elementary school and was placed in the lowest division of the lowest class at Harrow? He failed his entrance exam to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst – TWICE. He also failed at his first attempt to serve in Parliament and didn’t become Britain’s Prime Minister until the age of 62. Churchill famously wrote: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and heralded as ‘America’s greatest inventor’, was told he was “too stupid to learn anything” by his teachers at school. It took Edison a thousand unsuccessful attempts to invent the lightbulb and when a reporter famously asked “how did it feel to fail 1000 times?” Edison replied, “I did not fail 1000 times. The lightbulb was an invention with 1000 steps.”
Overcoming Anxiety By Changing Your Mindset
“Changing your mindset changes your life.”
This reframing is exactly the kind of powerful mindset shift that Marisa Peer teaches and why she is one of the most successful therapists in the world.
In her latest book ‘I Am Enough’ Marisa says: “It’s important to accept that we very often cannot change the external events that surround us, we can only change how we respond to them. Fortunately, though, changing how you feel on the inside will change how you feel about your external events more than you could ever imagine.”
This article by Marisa Peer addresses how to overcome anxiety if you don’t get the exam results you wanted. It helps to reframe and look at the bigger picture and how “you always get a second chance.”
Marisa shares a lesson in overcoming anxiety, “When you fail at anything you learn a lesson.” However, she goes onto to say that instead of saying “failed” you can say “I didn’t get the grades I wanted, because…” This is much more empowering and puts you in control of knowing what you can do differently to get a different outcome.
What Makes Your Heart Sing?
Marisa reveals how “I was kicked out of uni as I didn’t apply myself. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m not saying that’s right for you… You have gifts and talents and something you are meant to do. Find out what you are meant to do, what makes your heart sing. Pursue it with ambition, hard work and diligence and you’ll be amazing.”
Marisa also shares two very unusual but invaluable tips in this short video, to help with nerves, which you may have never heard before. This can benefit everyone, not just those who are overcoming anxiety due to exam results.
A Blessing In Disguise?
You have all heard the phrase, maybe it’s a “blessing in disguise.” If you didn’t get the results you were hoping for, then maybe people have even said this to you recently? There’s a reason why this expression is so well used that it’s become clichéd and that’s because it is so often true. When things don’t turn out how we planned, it opens up new options for us to consider.
This isn’t just some positive mindset theory, I speak from personal experience and definitely believe that the toughest challenges often have the most to teach us. I also believe that disruptions to our planned path can give us new opportunities to explore.
A Personal Story…
I try not to have regrets in life, but maybe this is one! This is something I’ve never actually written about before, but I thought it was worth sharing for anyone who may be overcoming anxiety or going through something similar, as it highlights an important life lesson…
When I was doing my A levels I went to a friend’s house the night before my first exam for a revision study session – bad idea! She seemed to know so much more than me about stuff I couldn’t even remember learning. I felt stupid and unprepared and stayed up all night trying to cram more and more into my already overloaded mind. The result: I turned up to my exam completely exhausted and stressed out and inevitably did really badly. My mind went blank and I was taken over by nerves. I tried to answer the wrong part of the paper, on a syllabus we hadn’t even studied. Because I was in such a state afterwards, instead of telling the teacher and arranging a retake, I just went home completely deflated and cried. When it came to results day, instead of getting straight A’s I had a big fat C on the page for that particular subject.
This led to my university deferring my entry for a year as they had over subscribed my course. I remember sitting in my living room holding the piece of paper with my C level results on them, feeling completely lost, panicked and uncertain as to what to do. The future plans I had made, which involved going to Uni with one of my best friends, had disappeared just like that. I was offered other courses and other universities, feeling so much pressure to make a quick decision ‘to secure my future’. However, I had my heart set on a degree in Psychology and English Literature, which was a combination hardly any other University offered at the time. I decided to take a gap year and go to my preferred university to do my chosen course, just a year later.
“One Of The Best Experiences Of My Life…”
In my gap year, I got 6 months work-experience and travelled the world for 6 months, which turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. I gained so much worldly wisdom from that year, which I could never have learned from studying books or theory. It truly was a ‘blessing in disguise.’
It did also shape my future, as I loved travelling so much afterwards, that once I graduated I went and lived in China for a year teaching at a University. This later led to a career sabbatical volunteering across Asia, before co-founding a charity that helped hundreds of causes with millions of pounds. My chosen degree also led me into a career I loved as a communications specialist, and now as a writer, who to quote one reader of my first book, “provides a great psychological insight into human existence.” Therefore, it really did “all come together” and “work out well in the end.” It’s a comforting truth that even when things seem like the end of the world at the time, this can actually lead you to a better place and open up new opportunities beyond any expectations of what you even knew was possible.
“Don’t Waste Time Worrying – It’s A Wasted Emotion”
A few years ago I was interviewed by my University and they asked me “what one piece of advice would you give your younger self?” My answer: “Don’t waste time worrying – it’s a wasted emotion. Trust that everything is ok and will turn out just as it is meant to.” This single piece of advice, not to worry so much, would have stopped me stressing out about things I couldn’t control and instead focus on enjoying every moment of my experience. It have helped me in overcoming anxiety.
What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?
In this empowering article, Nicole Sherzinger shares the advice she would tell her younger self:
“I would tell my younger self: you are perfect just the way that God made you. You are precious and you have purpose. You are going to go through a lot of pain and struggles in life, but there is purpose in that pain. There is a bigger plan. When you go through those struggles and challenges, it’s going to be preparing you and protecting you. Even though you don’t feel like you fit in—you are not supposed to fit in—you are supposed to stand out. Just hold on, don’t give up. Don’t let anyone else—not even yourself—get in the way of who you are and who you were created to be. You are enough. You are worth it.”
Nicole Scherzinger provides an excellent example of how changing the words we tell ourselves can change our lives and can help us in overcoming anxiety.
As a world-renowned therapist, Marisa Peer has helped thousands of clients and celebrities achieve freedom from the issues holding them back. Marisa shares a simple yet powerful truth that knowing and believing that you are enough can drastically improve your life.
Marisa has taught millions of people the power of believing “I Am Enough” to totally transform lives. Marisa states: “I believe that the common denominator of almost everyone’s issues is that, somewhere along the way, they learned that they weren’t good enough. Not loveable enough, successful enough, talented enough, perfect enough or good enough to be accepted and loved unconditionally.
‘I Am Enough’ is the most powerful statement of truth I have taught millions of people all over the world to use to transform their lives. When you truly believe you are enough, your life will improve in the most amazing ways.”
Marisa’s online course, also called ‘I Am Enough,’ is designed to radically and permanently improve people’s lives in all key areas, including confidence, purpose, relationships, career, wealth and abundance.
The award-winning ‘I Am Enough’ online program helps you massively increase your sense of self-worth and confidence, so you can finally break free from destructive thoughts and behaviours to live a happy, motivated and confident life.
Be One Of The World’s Most Successful And Fulfilled People
It is absolutely possible to become amongst the world’s most successful and fulfilled people when you know how to use your mind – the most powerful potential on the planet.
Neuroscience has proven that we can literally rewire our minds for more positive behaviours and beliefs, to propel us towards success, help us in overcoming anxiety and remove any of our own success blockers that hold us back.
Marisa is now teaching the same success strategies she has used with thousands of private clients, from royalty to rock stars, CEO’s to celebrities, overeaters to Olympic athletes and anyone wanting to be at the top of their game.
Marisa created Rapid Transformational Therapy™ (RTT®) as a complete solution-based treatment, offering fast effective results by combining the most beneficial principles of Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, NLP, CBT and Neuroscience.
Experience Powerful Transformation…
If you would like to know more about how a session of RTT could help you or a loved one overcome stress and anxiety, you can Find A Specialist Therapist.
If you are interested in learning more about becoming qualified in Rapid Transformational Therapy, then we currently have various options available to suit all levels and lifestyles.
- Join a FREE webinar to discover ‘5 Breakthrough Tips to Become a World-Class Therapists
- Train live in person with Marisa Peer in RTT® Live In-Person
- Apply now and book a call for RTT® training
