Accepting and learning from failure is what separates the most successful among us from those not reaching their goals. Having the ability to look at failure with a reasoned perspective will enable you to take advantage of things that might have gone wrong and take you one step closer to success. But how do we get there?
Don’t Take All the Blame
While it can be hard not to, it is important not to take failure personally. Failure isn’t a reflection of you, it is simply another part of your journey through life and business, and continually assuming all the blame can be suffocating to your personal development. If we share successes that are achieved with the help of a team around you, it is important we also share failures. Take a reasonable amount of responsibility and find a healthy way to move forward together.
Take Action to Reduce Your Fear of Failure
Don’t be afraid of failure. It’s impossible to remove all possibility of failure, and so it can be limiting – and even paralysing – if you are setting out to do this.
The sooner you can move past feeling threatened by failure, the sooner you will stop being held back and have the drive to succeed. Replacing experiences of failure with experiences of success first requires you to accept the possibility that you will fail again.
View Failure as Something That Happened in the Past
Recognise every day as a new day with new opportunities. Don’t waste time dwelling on mistakes that have already been made – this won’t give you permission to try again and subsequently grow. Keep looking ahead with an open mind to possibility and potential. Remember: ‘Yesterday ended last night’.
Change Yourself, and Your World Changes
Take a moment now and again to check in on and study yourself. What can you do to reach your goals for success? Do you need to grow your skill set? Is it a case of rearranging your team or hiring new employees?
When failure happens, it is vital for you to understand your role in it – after all, failure is a learning experience. Lean on people around you to help you unpick the process, or to compare notes with on their experiences on failure. This will help you to minimise the chances of the same outcome again in future.
Avoid picking up bad habits or repeating old ones, and spend time creating fulfilling new ones. These will likely feed into your work and could become the key to your successes.
When You Succeed, Look for Even Greater Challenges
And most importantly, don’t give up! Those who have had immense failures within their lifetime and overcome them are often the most successful. Look up some incredible failure to success stories for inspiration if you feel at a breaking point.
Original article and ideas by John C. Maxwell.
