Success is not a result of spontaneous combustion. You don’t just wake up one day being successful in every aspect of your life. It doesn’t happen by accident either— it takes consistency and dedication to reach your goals. Failure is actually (and always should be) part of the process of achieving success.
The Only Failure is Not Trying
Failure is a fact of life. It’s impossible to avoid or ignore; you will fail at something at some point in your life. The only failure is not trying.
Success comes from having the courage to try, even when you don’t know what you’re doing and things aren’t going well right away. Successful people are willing to take risks, make mistakes, try new things, and fail again until they find something that works for them—and then stick with it!
Redefine Failure
Failure is not a bad thing. It’s a learning experience, and it can be used to improve yourself and your skills in life. Failure is also an opportunity for growth, which means that you can grow as a person by taking advantage of the fact that you failed at something before. If it weren’t for failures in our lives, we wouldn’t learn from our mistakes or try new things—and neither would anyone else!
The more that you are “ok” with failing in the pursuit of success, the better you can remove yourself from the “perfectionist” mindset, so you can produce more of your work whilst getting so much better at what it is that you are pursuing.
Learn to See Value in Your Mistakes
We all make mistakes. We all have failures. It’s not a matter of if we’ll fail, but rather when and how often that happens. As a result, one of the most important things we can do is learn how to see value in our mistakes—and what it means for us as individuals and as businesses.
When you understand why failure is necessary, you’ll be able to find more success by recognizing that failing is part of the process. In fact, failure can lead directly to innovation and change—the very things which make life worth living!
Acknowledge failures but don’t dwell on them
In the recent episode of the Happiness Co Upside Podcast, Julian and Tom discussed how it’s normal to feel disheartened and frustrated when experiencing failure.
Honour and acknowledge what you feel, but don’t dwell on them and make poor choices because of them. Here are three questions you can ask when you fail:
Questions to ask when you experience failure:
- What happened to you?
- What does it mean to you? Meaning is everything.
- What will you do about it?
Willing to Take Risks
Another step to succeeding at failure is being willing to take risks. If you don’t have the courage or confidence to do something, then you’re never going to be able to succeed at it.
There are many benefits of taking risks:
- You’ll learn from your mistakes and gain valuable experience
- You’ll be able to think outside of the box
- By trying new things and failing along the way, you’ll become more creative and innovative!
Failing is part of succeeding.
Failing is actually a sign that you’re trying, and that means you’re on the right track! Remembering this will help you keep going when things get difficult—and it will also make sure that when things do work out for you, it won’t feel like an accident or luck.
Here are some other ways failing can be good for your career or business:
- You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t work in your field by doing experiments with different paths or tools; this knowledge will serve as a guidepost for future projects.
- You’ll have more ideas than ever before if they come from experience rather than theory alone.
- You’ll refine your craft further and get a deeper understanding of where you are currently at.
Are you dealing with setbacks and failures in life and want to learn more tips on how to deal with them? Listen to the full podcast episode where Julian and Tom shared 4 STRATEGIES to help you succeed at failure so you can do better next time!
For 1:1 private coaching – reach out to wecare@happinessco.org to speak to one of our team.
