I don't know how to talk about my failures...

The other day, when a junior colleague came to me for advice, they said this:

“People ask me what I learned from my failures, but
honestly, I don't know how to put it into words...”

Hearing that,
I couldn't help but feel, “I was exactly the same way in the past.”

Success stories are relatively easy to talk about.
However,how to organize failures and present them in a positive lightis something
that surprisingly, no one ever teaches you.

📍 Failure experiences are hard to use "as is"

When you try to talk about a failure,

• will it sound like an excuse?

• will it lower my evaluation?

• will it be taken negatively?

Those anxieties come first,
and in the end, you often can't put it into words well and end up changing the subject.

I was the same way for a long time.

🤖 I tried organizing my "failures" with ChatGPT

So, I tried
having ChatGPT act as an interviewer.

I asked it like this:

📋 Prompt for copy-pasting

私のこれまでの失敗経験を整理したいです。
どんな失敗だったのか、
そのときの気持ち、
原因、
改善行動、
そこから得た学び
の順に質問してください。

Then, ChatGPT
without judging my emotions,
asked me questions calmly, but in an orderly fashion.

💡 Actual interaction (example)

Q. What kind of failure did you experience?
→ I missed a deadline on a new project and caused trouble for the client.

Q. How did you feel at that time?
→ I was filled with intense anxiety and regret.

Q. What do you think was the cause of the failure?
→ The initial schedule design was too optimistic, and risk management was insufficient.

Q. What improvement actions did you take?
→ For the next project, I created a detailed schedule and ensured regular progress checks.

Q. What did you learn from that?
→ The importance of thorough planning and risk-aware management.

✅ What I realized

What I understood by organizing it in this flow is that,

• you don't have to end a failure with just "reflection"

• Failure → Improvement Action → LearningIf you can articulate it up to this point,
  the way it comes across changes completely

is what it meant.

💡 Content I was actually able to organize

[Failure]
A delay in the deadline occurred on a new project

[Cause]
Poor schedule design and lack of risk management

[Improvement Action]
・Creation of a detailed schedule
・Thorough regular progress checks

[Learning]
The importance of preparation during the planning stage and risk management

With just this,
I was able to talk not as "someone who failed," but as
**"someone who learned from failure and grew."**

💡 To the readers

• I don't know how to talk about my failure experiences

• I'm worried it will sound negative

• I can't come up with words for self-promotion

In times like that,
try letting ChatGPT take on the role of interviewer.

Just by having someone to organize your thoughts with,
the way you view your failures will gradually change.

❤️ Please like and follow

If there is any part of this article that makes you feel
“I might need this too,”
it would encourage me if you could press the like button.

I plan to continue writing about
stories that help organize experiences that are hard to put into words based on my own real-life experiences.
If you'd like, please follow me and come back to visit again.🙂