Failures Don’t Make It to Social Media

Each one of you reading this must have, at some point, wetted your pillow with tears, broken down under the curveballs life throws, or felt like a complete failure. Yet most of us would never put those moments up on our social media. 

But the moment something good happens, a small win, a milestone, a piece of good news then the first instinct is often to share it on social media.And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it does create a strange imbalance. The world gets to see our celebrations, while our struggles remain hidden in silence.I am no exception.

Like most people, I too have shared my nano, micro, small and big wins on social media. The moments that made me proud, the milestones that felt worth celebrating. But behind many of those posts were attempts that didn’t work out.For every success you may have seen, there were many failures quietly sitting in the background.

Just giving a glimpse of three such moments here below. 

For the last few years, I have been working towards something that meant a lot to me. I put in time, effort, and hope into it, yet the results have not come the way I expected.There are days when the weight of that failure feels incredibly heavy. Days when it becomes hard to stand up again and keep going.

June 11, 2025 was one such day.

The result came out, and it was not in my favour, something I had never expected. I remember checking the result again and again, refreshing the page multiple times because I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing.But it didn’t change.It felt like failing for the nth time.I was six months pregnant at the time, and I remember crying endlesslyThe disappointment, the exhaustion and the emotional weight of it all became too much to hold inside. My mom, my sister and my husband had to step in and console me. They reminded me that I couldn’t let myself break down like this, especially with a little life growing inside me.

Secondly, there is one opportunity in my professional life that I have been waiting for very desperately.I see people around me getting it, colleagues sitting to my right, left, in front of me, behind me. One by one, almost everyone seems to walk through that door.But when it feels like my turn, the door simply shuts right in my face.

Sometimes I sit down and wonder where things are going wrong for me, what I might be missing, or what I could have done differently.On some days, the questions feel overwhelming.

But on other days, I remind to be kinder to myself and not beat myself up for things that didn’t work out the way I hoped they would.

On the personal front, my second pregnancy and the postpartum phase have been a difficult journey.There was very little support around us sometimes it felt like there was no support system at all. Every single day we woke up hoping to find some help somewhere.But most days it was just us trying to manage everything on our own.

There was hardly any time to heal, hardly any time for care. We were simply moving from one day to the next, doing whatever we could to keep things going.At times, it felt like we were just struggling to survive as a family of four.But through all of this, I believe I have become a better person.

Whenever I see someone else winning, getting their plans right, or having the support system that makes their journey easier, I don’t feel jealous. I don’t undermine their happiness or question their success.Instead, I genuinely feel happy for them. Because, I know everyone goes through their own journey of ups & downs. 

And somewhere along this journey, I made another quiet decision.I decided that I will not let these failures weigh me down forever.Instead of constantly focusing on what hasn’t worked out yet, I have started writing a gratitude journal a small daily reminder of the many blessings that already exist in my life.

Because when life feels heavy, it is easy to forget what is still going right.This journal reminds me of the little things, the family that stands beside me, the lessons these struggles have taught me, and the strength I didn’t know I had.

I even recently saw a podcast by famous actress Radhika Sarathkumar. She has beautifully articulated her life experience in one hour. My favourite line of the entire podcast is, "Whenever there is a storm just lie down. The storm has to pass.You can't do anything about it" 

Maybe I don’t have every result I hoped for yet. But I still have so much to be grateful for.

Because somewhere along the way, I started reminding myself of this:

“Till the dice are rolling, you will always get your six.Till then, we clap for others and show love.”

Maybe life hasn’t rolled my six for things I'm working for. But until it does, I choose to clap for others, show love, keep writing in my gratitude journal, and keep rolling the dice.