Lessons from Failure
Failure is inevitable. We all fail at something or will fail at some point. It’s part of life.
But don’t feel disheartened. There is so much to be learned from failure that your success won’t teach you.
There is a reason for the cliche, “failure leads to success.” And the reason is that when you examine your failures, you gain valuable insight about yourself, your values, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and shortcomings.
And if you take those lessons to heart, learn from your mistakes, work on your strengths and weaknesses, and put everything you have learnt into practice moving forward in life, you will experience undeniable success, possibly greater than you could have ever dreamed of.
Today, I’ll share some of the character building lessons that I learnt from my failures. And you can too, if you are willing to try.
1. Positive attitude: Failure is not the end of the world. Not all is lost. There are things that you can enjoy and be thankful for. There are people who love and care for you. If you are alive and breathing, that is your winning chance at life. You will get another opportunity. You can build anything from scratch again.
2. Courage: In life, not everything will go as planned. There will be unexpected setbacks and failures. And if you have the courage to accept those failures gracefully, it becomes easier to recover from their blow. Moreover, you have the courage to approach your problems in novel ways. You feel empowered to think out of the box, take risks and make bolder decisions.
3. Patience: Failure sets us back, at times to square one, where you have to start over. The only way forward is to keep patience and work tirelessly until you reach your goal.
4. Persistence: It is the quality of trying again and again until you succeed. And that is the only way to achieve success in the face of failure. You fail, get up and give your 100% again until you taste victory.
5. Resilience: The ability to bounce back improves with each setback. Your first failure will be devastating, crushing your hopes and will power. But if you can muster strength to fight back and try again, your next failure won’t keep you down for long.
6. Humility: Failure keeps us humble and keeps our ego in check. It teaches us that no matter how good we think we are, there is always a chance that things won’t work out our way and that there is always a scope for improvement.
7. Innovation & Creativity: When everything else fails, you are forced to think of creative solutions for your problems.
8. Clarity of goals: When you try and fail at multiple things, it helps you clearly understand your goals and reasons behind them. It helps you rule out things that you do not enjoy doing. It helps you figure out things that you are passionate about. And with this newly found clarity, you will be able to focus your attention and efforts towards goals that matter to you.
9. Empathy: Failure helps you be supportive of others who have failed. You can help them find courage and motivation to try again. You can set an example that failure is not the end of their journey to success. That it is just the beginning. Because:
The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.
-Roy T. Bennet
(Source: Google)
Conclusion:
Failure can be devastating, even forcing some to think critically about themselves. It can cause you to feel fear, shame, anger and anxiety. But, that is okay. After all we are humans, and failure is not something we aim for, therefore it is bound to hurt and stir some negative emotions.
Just remember that failure is part of life and can happen to the best of the best. This is how we learn and grow in life.
If you keep a positive attitude and try to learn from your failures, then it is just another stepping stone towards success.
So don’t lose hope, gather yourself up, make a plan and start working.
I wish you all the best for a wonderful life.
Thank you for reading.
