If we never fell, we would never walk!

I have learned by experience that the darkest times can bring us to the brightest places. What seems like a loss now is actually a blessing in disguise. All of us have a fear of failure and usually see the downside alone and tend to overlook on the positives that come out of it. Failure is a success if we can learn from it and surely an opportunity to start afresh but with more wisdom and experience. It is a learning tool as well as a platform to build upon. We must all learn to accept that failure is a part of both our personal and professional lives, considering no one learns to walk without falling. Failure is frustrating and discouraging, yet can be educational. It can be viewed as an invitation to learn something new and equip ourselves better. No one’s journey is easy. Everyone is handed adversity, how we handle is what makes us special or let’s just say, that is what divides men from the boys.
Below are a few learnings I have had from my failures.
1.Discipline:
Whenever we fail we tend to introspect and dig deep into searching for reasons for the failure and in the process of doing so, we get to know our own flaws that need to be amended if there has to be a turnaround. In a way, failure helps us prepare ourselves better to take the next step and in the process brings in self-discipline. People who excel are those who learn from their mistakes and prepare and train themselves. In one way, self-discipline is to overcome all that hinders us from reaching the goal. Life puts challenges and problems on the path to success. In order to rise above them, we have to act with endurance, earnestness, and engrossment, in one word — self-discipline.
2. Learning:
We learn more from our failures than from books. Our mettle is tested more on the rough roads than on the highway. If we would be scholars we must be sufferers as no one learns to walk without falling. Like as a salve that remedies the disease of the eyes doth first bite and grieves the eyes, and maketh them to water, but yet afterward the eyesight was clearer than it was; even so trouble doth vex men wonderfully at the first, but afterwards it lightens the eyes of the mind, that it is afterward more reasonable, wise and circumspect. Learning that comes from failure is far greater than any theoretical knowledge we can accumulate.
3. Self-Discovery:
Failure helps us to discover ourselves. It makes us question who we are and what we really want out of our life. Once we figure it out everything falls into place. Sir Isaac Newton failed to be a farmer and Abraham Lincoln failed at business which resulted in choosing alternative careers, and the rest is history. Failure is a chance to rediscover and improve ourselves. It’s never too late to start doing what you believe is your calling.
4.Empathize/Encourage:
He who has experienced failure is peculiarly qualified to console, comfort and encourage those in the similar circumstances, for it is easier for them to relate to someone who has risen from the ashes. The most beautiful people are those who have known defeat, struggle, and loss, for it makes them appreciative, sensitive, tender and gentle towards others who are going through the same.
5. Humility:
Failure keeps us humble, besides cleansing us from a whole lot of arrogance and dogmatism it makes us respect and learn from everyone around us. Nothing brings us low like defeat does. It is well said that lowly souls become full of wisdom as the low place becomes full of water. He who is eminently successful will be characterized by pride which in due course leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Moreover, with humility, we make room for improvement and progress.
6. Creativity:
When we fail we tend to take the unusual option. We think differently, out of the box and innovate and go with untried techniques. Albert Einstein once said, “I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.” Failure enables us to do the same thing in a different way, that’s what we call creativity. We learn from our failures and by implication develop new insights. Thereby, we look at old problems from a new angle and take a new path to discover something revolutionary.
7. Willingness to work in a team:
Failure often shows where we are lacking and the need for us to work with the team, in order to achieve our goal. There is no such thing as a self-made man. We need others’ help, advice, support, and encouragement. The sooner we realize it, the better it is. Failure makes us realize experientially that the joint labors of two produce much more effect than the efforts of a solitary worker.
Darkness precedes dawn and Autumn to Spring. That’s the way of Nature.


