The word “fail” is so often perceived by people as opposite of success. It leads to fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame. People fear failure so much that they avoid any opportunity to succeed. However, the reality of success is that it cannot exist with failure. Therefore, failure is part of the process to success. What is important about failure is that it teaches us important lessons. See below the four lessons you can learn from failure as part of the process to success.
- Failure Gives True Meaning of Success
We’re always thinking bigger, better and more glamorous—a bigger house, more money and a fancy car. But success isn’t necessarily having more; success is feeling good about what you already have. If you try and fail, it may not be because you didn’t try hard enough. It could be because you didn’t try for the right thing. Use failure to question your current goals and your definition of success. Make sure that any effort you make is worthwhile. Put it towards something you really require and not necessarily what you want.
- Only You Keep Track of Your Failures
It never matters how many times you fail, if you keep getting back up, you’ll eventually succeed. When it comes to success and failure, most of us have the same odds. The biggest difference between success and failure is that the people who succeed aren’t afraid to fail—they keep doing it and they’re probably really good at it. But once they succeed, that’s all anyone else ever focuses on. All anyone really remembers are the high points.
- Failure is Signal That Leads to Change
It should be noted that when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and it’s not working, perhaps you need to make a change. In fact, failure is a signal that leads to change. Is it time to do things differently? Whether it’s changing jobs or your approach, something has to be different in order to get what you want. You can make the same mistake 1,000 times, but if you do, you’ll have missed out on the 999 different failures that had lessons to teach you. Never quit, but be sure to learn from your mistakes and make changes when you need to.
- Failure is Only Permanent When You Quit
Sometimes changing course makes sense, but that is not the same thing as quitting. Quitting is giving up and giving up ensures that failure is permanent. Think of it this way: A failure is never the final verdict until it is the accepted one.
The mind has two choices when failure occurs: 1. It suffers from shame, which is a punishment, and makes a person feel so bad they will never make that mistake again. 2. Or, it looks over the situation, deciphers what went wrong, learns a lesson and makes another attempt to change the outcome, which is a kind of reward. A lesson is a reward, rather than a punishment! Wouldn’t you rather be rewarded for learning? By taking the time to find lessons (rewards) in your failures, you’re putting yourself in a much better position to make a stronger comeback.
To your health & prosperity,
Christopher Salem
