By Palak Chandra:
Behavior is defined as the actions and the reactions by a person in relation to the environment or the response in relation to the inputs given to the person. Human behavior is somewhat influenced by culture, attitudes, values, ethics, authority etc. It can be just a spontaneous reaction to the success or the failure received in their life.
Failure is a state of mind when a person is not able to meet the desired objective. Failures can be of three types:
- Failure of acceptance,
- Failure of perceiving of objects,
- Failure of achievement of any goal.
Each of these may result in very different kinds of behaviour. Some may feel low or very disappointed with their life. Their state of mind can take them go into depression and this may lead to drastic fatalities like suicide. Some take their failure as motivation through which they can move further in their life.
Abraham Maslow, the psychologist, has proposed the hierarchy of needs where the basic needs or physiological needs (thirst, hunger, sleep etc.) fill the bottom rung and self-actualization is at the topmost position. In between there are safety, love and belonging, and esteem needs. Achievement of needs can affect the way a person performs a task and represent a desire to show competence. These basic physiological motivational drives affect natural behavior in different environments. Most of the needs are incentive-based and can vary from basic hunger to the need for love and the establishment of mature sexual relationships. The motives for achievement can range from biological needs to satisfying creative desires or realizing success in competitive ventures. A person may also feel like a failure in life if any of these needs are not fulfilled. If he/she is not motivated at the right time he/she may have to start from the basic needs to again reach up to the level where he/she feels successful in life.
In general, human behavior may change from time to time as and when the goal is fulfilled or reached to some extent. Similar is the condition with failure. A person may make himself/herself so reserved that he/she may not at all be interested in talking or getting involved in social activities. He/she may lose confidence and may become a victim of inferiority complex. The person may feel very disturbed and may lose temper so easily that he/she starts flinging objects at others in anger. He/she may feel jealous, may not be able to communicate comfortably, may no longer be able to cope up with the environment, feel very shy to come up with new ideas, take time to get involved in any task, not make friends easily, may take time to understand things etc. This can lead to terrible repercussions mentioned a little earlier in the article.
The behavior of a person, when faced with failures, can change and be aimed in the right direction if the person is motivated and made to feel that it is not the end but the beginning of a new period. The person must be made mentally strong even before the prospect of failure arrives so that if /when failure occurs he/she does not get depressed; rather feels strong in stepping forward in life. An emotionally and mentally stable person will get through all failures in life and will succeed. As the saying goes…
“Success is to go from Failure without losing your Enthusiasm.”