Dealing with disapointments

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

Also, can this be stickied, I think this thread could help a lot of people, one of which is me.

Seconded.

And yea we did cheer for our friends out there on Galileo. 1923, 56, and 25. We went nuts when MOE, Daisy, and Cybersonics all won a championship award.

All this really helped me today everyone, and I want you all to know how much it means to me. Its good to know that we (MORT) and I personally, are in such good company year after year.

That's a lot of great advice for me and it has helped my outlook on this past season. I hope this thread also helped a few others I had in mind at the time.

[Robert Cawthon]

Its not wrong to feel disappointed. I certainly have had my share of disappointments and will certainly get more. It's not the disappointmens that matter. You will get more in robotics, if you stay, and in life. The important thing is how you handle the disappointments. You can learn from them and continue on, or get upset and quit. Your choice. Personally, I hope you stay with it and figure out how to make the best of it. Good luck.

[Brandon Holley]

Akash,
The fact you care about not making it to elims is enough to say you are a dedicated FIRSTer. I watched MORT go through 3 years of bad luck (and some good luck) before we FINALLY won our first competition in our 8th year as a team!! A bunch of people have already given the standard advice and it something you should pay attention to.

You can't win every year (although some of the great teams figure out how to), but you can sure as hell try to win every year. I've been to nationals 8 times now...getting picked there is not something to take for granted. This year we were I think the ONLY team in atlanta to go 0 and 9 (1-7 in qualifers, the win was a surrogate....and we lost both of our quarterfinal matches). However, we still managed to get picked...For everytime I have been snubbed from a pick (see 2007 nationals), I can point to a time I've been lucky someone notice dus (see this years nationals). Sure our record was horrendous...but we were a decent robot who could score points, and someone noticed us. If you ask anyone on our team, I bet they would say we didnt have a snowballs chance of being picked, based only on our record.

The point of this story is to realize its only 1 year. Its only 1 competition, in the grand scheme of things. There will be a bunch of offseasons, and eventually another build season will come around. If you work hard, make connections, and believe in your team you can avoid the scenario MORT went through. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it won't happen again, because chances are that sometime down the road it will....but don't let that fact discourage you from giving it your all every single year at every single competition.



-Brando

[thefro526]

Stogi,

Occasions like this are what Fueled me to do well. People in this thread are saying, "We haven't won a regional in xx years", "We didn't make it to the top 8 here", "We missed the elims there" but you have to remember that there's always a team that has it worse than you. Look at all of the teams out there that have been in this for 5,6,7,8 years and haven't made the eliminations in any of them. Or look at the teams who have never even gone to the Championship and you'll look at everything that goes on for your team in a different light.

My personal Disappointment story is this, 816 has never won an on-season event, made it to the finals by it's own merit or ever really done anything spectacular. In 2006 when I joined the team, we invested 5 weeks on a shooter that never materialized, so we were forced to use this half thought out dumping mechanism. We got to Philly and did ok, or as good as we could've done with what we had. We went to Atlanta that year and went 0-7 we were ranked dead last. In 2007 we fielded this hack job of a robot that came off of the field broken in 6 out of 7 matches in New Jersey, and half of the matches in Philly. We went to Atlanta, this time we went 2-5.

I looked at these two dismal seasons not with anger and envy but with a more scientific mentality. I picked them apart, I saw what was wrong with them and changed these things. Look at where 816 is now. Disappointment can be your fuel for greatness.

I'm not saying you don't have every right to be Envious and Upset, but you should use your energy for something good. Try to come back twice as strong next year. Just remember, this is one event out of many, one robot out of your legacy, and that you're not alone.

-Dustin.

[nlknauss]

Akash - From being around the block in your area a while I really have to commend you and Mort's leadership for their accomplishments this year. You guys are really a lot of fun to watch and are really a complete team.

Your story sort of reminds me of my time on Team 87 in 2002. We were regional finalists, won some awards, and earned our way to Championships. We got down to Epcot, performed well but didn't make it past alliance selections for finals despite our prior resume. What I learned that year was that (1) you shouldn't discount your accomplishments and (2) learn from the experience. I've been "let down" many times but the experiences are really what it's all about.

[Laaba 80]

Originally Posted by Valkyrie133

(And there was another team seeded even higher that wasn't chosen - my sincere apologies for not remembering who that was, I'm still sleep-deprived!!)

That would be us. We were the 11th seed and we didnt make it. If we had won our last match we would have been guaranteed 2nd seed, possibly 1st. We lost by 4 points, but it didnt bother me because I really felt we would get picked. We had some great matches offensively, and played D on 1625, handing their only loss in qualifications. I was disappointed, not because we lost, but because i dont get to drive until next year. Later I realized our record this year was 23-8, WAY better than we have ever done before, and that cheered me up.

[uid60001]

Akash,

Let me first thank your for extending your help to team 2554.

This year, many teams have come up good design independently. One of the successful model is similar to your team's design. Since there are a lot of the functioning robots out there, that level the playing field to some extend. The one example I witness in NY regional was the team 694. It has a very reliable robot and every thing work flawlessly on first day. It was in very dominating position at the practice and first day of competition. By third day, other team has come up idea how to defend again 694. At the end of the preliminary round, it was ranked 9th, which is out of picking postion. I guess luck was not on its side. A good design is base for success, but luck can play a very important factor in real competition.

[Chris is me]

I really don't have a good reason to be dissapointed. Our team had our first >50% record since 2006 and won the supermajority of our matches for the first time ever. We won our first regional this year and got picked first overall in Minnesota. I'm extremely happy and proud of my teammates and alliance partners for that. But I dunno, missing a great picking spot in Atlanta by 2 little 9-inch balls just really bothers me.

I've watched that match on TBA 6 times now and can't think of anything we could have done differently at all. The strategy was fine, our alliance partners did really well, our drivers did an awesome job... yet I'm still not content with myself for this reason. I guess I'm just never satisfied.

Yet I feel kind of... guilty... for not being happy with an Atlanta record teams would envy, you know? Grass is always greener on the other side and all that. There's no rhyme or reason for my dissapointment in Atlanta, it's just kind of there. I had fun and I learned something, so I did what I went to do. I just wish things went just a little differently.

At least this way I got to cheer the unheard-of 2970 on as they led an alliance of legendary low numbered teams to the semis. That was pretty cool.

[Andrew Schreiber]

I would like to point out that Akash, instead of blaming others for the losses, looks to himself and how he can personally cope with his disappointment. Too often around here I see people saying, "We would have won if it weren't for our [blank] breaking" or "Our partners did such and such and we lost because of it." All the whining in the world is NOT going to get that match replayed.

I just wanted to say thank you for not whining about your season and blaming it on others. This is a productive thing, we all deal with disappointments, perhaps we can all learn something from each other. Thank You.

[115inventorsam]

We were actually quite disappointed when we didn't get picked in Atlanta. Our robot was performing better than ever at the end of quals, but hardware issues plagued our second and third matches, which caused us to lose comm repeatedly. After we gave 67 a tough battle in our last match on Friday, we thought we had a decent shot at making it, and then one team(1676?) passed around a scouting sheet on Saturday that ranked us 15th, which really got our hopes up. So I felt a little down when we weren't picked.

Looking back however, we've come to appreciate how well we've done this year. Our robot had very few problems the whole competition season, we were finalists at Sacramento, and won EI there, which is how we even ended up going to Atlanta. And our mentor and alumni Patrick noted that this was definitely the team's best robot since 2003(last year's wins were all luck), making this year one of the best ever in our 12 year history. It's all about looking at the positives. I'm sure our team is really looking forward to next year and further building on our successes this year.

[waialua359]

Akash,
Its an example of real life. Sometimes it aint fair, objective, or realistic. Control what you can and live by those principles. At the end of the day, it will allow you to sleep at night and give you the positive outlook and things to look forward to in the future.

Personally, I thought we worked harder this year more than last, but yet our awards weren't indicative of that and we made eliminations last year with a losing record.
Sometimes that's how the dices roll and you have to roll with it also.
There is always next year. That's the best part of it all.

Thanks for the shirt by the way.

[NorviewsVeteran]

After 4 years of competition and Worlds narrowly slipping through our fingers once, I have 3 words of encouragement: At Lan Ta.

I know how it feels to get knocked off your high horse, we got up to 10-0-0 and lost in 3rd round of the finals by four points. I, along with plenty of other people (the others on 1793, to name a few) would kill in the most gracious and professional way possible to even get to where you guys were last weekend. So tell people the good stories, and eventually all the stories will be good ones.

As far as "lessons for next year" go, LEARN from your experiences, just don't FRET over them.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I would like to point out that Akash, instead of blaming others for the losses, looks to himself and how he can personally cope with his disappointment. Too often around here I see people saying, "We would have won if it weren't for our [blank] breaking" or "Our partners did such and such and we lost because of it." All the whining in the world is NOT going to get that match replayed.

I just wanted to say thank you for not whining about your season and blaming it on others. This is a productive thing, we all deal with disappointments, perhaps we can all learn something from each other. Thank You.

Thanks for noticing this Andrew. If a team blames others for losses, it is both unproductive and hurts TWO teams instead of just one. We know that blaming others for a loss will get us nowhere. Its just something we've never done and never plan to, maybe its an old veteran thing? Either way, thanks for noting this. Each year, whoever we pick or get picked by and whoever we work with in qualifications, we accept losses and wins and move on....kinda where our secondary slogan came from (See my signature)

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Yet I feel kind of... guilty... for not being happy with an Atlanta record teams would envy, you know? Grass is always greener on the other side and all that. There's no rhyme or reason for my disappointment in Atlanta, it's just kind of there. I had fun and I learned something, so I did what I went to do. I just wish things went just a little differently.

Haha, this is actually the perfect way of putting to words how I felt right after Atlanta as soon as 971 got picked (which we were surprised was still around lol)

But yea, this thread has helped a lot, if you read through all the posts I'm sure you'll find some relevancy in a few of the posts that will make you feel better.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Holy Thread Bump Batman! [Insert onomatopoeic word appropriate for action]

Either way, I guess it is just as well to bring this up now. Does anyone have any other good ways of coping with disappointments? There are already some great pieces of advice but I am sure there is more out there.

PS: Anyone know how hard it is to look up that onomatopoeia word when you have NO idea how it is spelled?

[Rion Atkinson]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

PS: Anyone know how hard it is to look up that onomatopoeia word when you have NO idea how it is spelled?

To repeat what I have heard my entire life. "Sound it out!"

Honestly I can't help you

On the disapointment note. I get disapointed alot. I finally learned to deal with it simple by stepping back and looking at the whole picture from an unbias point of view. This was my team second year. We were the 16th team picked going into quarters. We lost both matches. While most of the team was sad I was able to holdbit together. These two thoughts kept me together.

1. We were picked!!
2. Our frist year we got dead last out of 48 teams(I think..). To jump from dead last to 16th after seeding in one year was winning enough for me.

Basically what I am saying is bad things happen. But in ever bad thing thereia a lesson to learn. I advise you to step back and search for it. When you find it you will not only find yourself growing. But those who you influence with what you have learned.

My $.02 (of course, being 16 means it counts more like $.01..)

-Rion