Personal failure

Personal failure occurs when the results of initiatives taken fail to match the expectations. For those with out-directed values the expectations are those of important others (family, associates and institutional reference points), whereas those with inner-directed values naturally tend to rely more on their own personal standards. The former is influenced by someone else's standards without necessarily understanding it or being equipped to live by it. Few can match the external accomplishments of their idols and are thus vulnerable to a constant sense of failure. The inner-directed person may also set unreachable goals and be constantly dissatisfied with the failure to achieve them fully, possibly because they are too divorced from reality.