Most of us don’t look forward to experiencing failure. Commonly, we exhibit an avoidant type of behavior towards the possibility of failing; that is, we have a tendency to feel fear or withdrawal from situations that would present conflict or an undesirable outcome. For instance, students concerned with their grades may exhibit this behavior when it comes to their class selection. Maybe they choose the easier class over the more challenging one in order to avoid the possibility of jeopardizing their strong grades. Employees may avoid confronting a lazy co-worker to avoid the possibility of causing conflict in the workplace. Whatever the situation may be and whatever the reason may be to avoid failure (whether for positive or negative reasons), this avoidant behavior frequently occurs.

I like to think of this behavior, this avoidance of failure, as the Rubik’s Cube Effect. Rubik’s cubes are very hard to solve, and very frustrating. Just ask anyone that has ever tried. A lot of twisting, shifting, and having to mess up one perfectly solved side are all essential to solving the puzzle. For those who are not familiar with the Rubik’s cube, the basic anatomy is simple. Initially each side of the cube has its own color; that’s all there is to it. Once the big cube has been mixed up, the sole objective is to rearrange the jumbled mess back to its original state consisting of one uniform color per side.

So how does a Rubik’s cube relate to life? Well, the sides of the cube are like all of the different aspects of our lives; aspects like family, friends, work, and school. With all of these things falling in and out of our control, problems can arise. That’s life. Relationships are a great example of circumstances that can fall out of our control. For instance, maybe we decide to focus on an intimate relationship and disregard the relationships we have established with our close friends. When problems and conflict arise because we neglected our friends, typically we have the desire to try to fix those problems. We’ll make all necessary shifts and twists in hopes of solving the problem, which in turn would allow us to become one step closer to restoring balance to our lives – rearranging a jumbled mess back to its original state.

Sometimes a Rubik’s cube can be partially solved – one or more sides will be rejoined with the like colors – however, the puzzle is not entirely solved. I personally have attempted to solve a Rubik’s cube and I can attest that experiencing this situation is halting. It’s so rewarding to even align a row, let alone an entire side of the cube perfectly, that it’s hard to tamper with even the slightest glimpse of perfection on one side to work on other sides.

A partially solved Rubik’s cube relates to life. When a person is so focused on specific aspects of life, it is very possible to “solve” those sides of the cube. Although the cube may feel perfect, it is only temporary and only encompasses a few select sides. Even that small glimpse of perfection is a strong enough feeling of satisfaction to keep us from shifting anything around. The slightest shift could open up the doorway for failure in one or more other aspects of life. Fear is what usually holds us back. It is very difficult to mess around with something that seems so perfect, and the thought of having to rearrange and deal with new situations because of the decision to tamper with our cube could lead to failure. Referring back to the example of trying to balance between relationships, if we try to repair the relationships we had previously established with our friends, we could risk losing certain aspects of the intimate relationship we share with our significant other, or losing the relationship altogether. It is easier to refrain from changing the focus from a loved one to another side of our cube that is important to us, such as the relationships with friends, because we may have to deal with an outcome that is undesirable, such as losing our loved one.

We shouldn’t be too scared of re-shifting solved sides of our cube, though. The thing about failure is that it is an assumption that we make towards our own capabilities and ourselves. It isn’t necessarily the outcome that will actually happen. We definitely have the capability to handle an intimate relationship as well as maintain relationships with friends. We definitely have the capability to handle a more difficult class by exerting just a little more time and energy than we would if we chose the easier class. Whatever the situation is, we are more capable of handling it than we think. If we don’t tamper with temporary perfection, then we may never know how close our lives could come to being solved in a more complete way. In other words, sometimes we need to take the risk of going through a little bit of a jumble in our lives to discover solutions to our cubes that will lead us closer to the balance that we desire, and deserve (it’s hard work to constantly shift things around)! Try to think past the thought of failing and make some shifts to your cube, even the ones you feel are difficult to make. Chances are you’ll bypass failure, not because you’ve chosen to avoid it, but because you’ve overcome it. You’ll have experienced failure’s opposite – success!

Heather Schwartz is a junior psychology major at Drexel University.

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