Our success is largely dependent upon how we fail, how we view our unsuccessful endeavors; and most importantly how we react to them afterwards. Success is really the progressive realization of worthwhile pre-determined goals. It is this very journey which makes or breaks us. In a complex world, we must use an adaptive, experimental approach to succeed. Failure helps build us up to conquer our dreams and beyond.
1. Experience
Do you remember going for your first job after school or after just completing college? It was probably hard to get employed directly into the job you wanted as the employer wanted those who had experience to work for them.
As we make errors and learn from our mistakes we tend to react accordingly, making us a little more aware of what needs to be done in order to achieve our objectives. If we had succeeded immediately without tasting the disappointment associated with failure then it's possible that we may not have not been so adventurous in looking for other possibilities.
2. Character
When we have "stuffed up" enough times one can go either way! We can choose to throw the towel in and crawl into our shell thereby forgetting about what is most dear and important to us or we can learn from the experience, gain confidence, build character and become more than the person that we ideally wish to be.
3. Honesty
If you find it hard or even impossible to justify to yourself why you're doing what you're doing then maybe you're barking up the wrong tree. Try something else in this case.
However, if your desire increases even though your successes have, to date, eluded you then the realistic value of this goal has been determined. This is priceless. You know you want it, so for heaven's sake go and get it!
4. Confidence
Those who worked hard for a start then followed this up by working smarter to get where they are at today will have a much higher chance of succeeding in the long term than someone who made a couple of right decisions early on but didn't develop due to a lack of exposure to other possible problems etc. I don't mean that we should all struggle for a start to make a success of what we're doing, but what I'm really saying is that generally speaking those who have had problems, learned from them and solved them, have a better chance of developing further. This is simply due to their exposure and experience.
Succeeding too quickly may actually blind one's potential...
5. Improvement
Failing is simply a way of finding out that your methods of the day didn't work. It's not a bad thing, it just requires a gentle grease an oil change, a lubrication here and there and then you can put your vehicle back on the road and test the re-alignment once again. Through careful planning and observation, failure will ALWAYS push you in the direction of success if you use it as the stepping stone for goal achievement that it so rightfully is.
6. Reveals your weaknesses
Are you someone who passes on all the stuff you don't do very well or would you rather stick at it, making a few errors along the way to eventually master the art? Take a simple tennis match for example. Do you run around your backhand to use your forehand and develop half a game or do you feed your backhand until it becomes as good as your forehand?
Use failure as a chance to strengthen those areas that are letting you down.
7. Success is the attitude, failure is the lever
Develop a successful attitude and let failure lever and assist you with it's strength and power of learning and understanding. Do not allow failure to absorb and destroy your spirit. Gain strength from knowing your desired outcome is one step closer.
If you have 100 ways you would like to try to get your desired result then one wrong turn just involves backing-up a tad and altering your game plan with your newfound knowledge. The world provides you with an abundance of opportunity so for heaven's sake don't take the easy way out and let yourself down because you screwed up a few times. Build on your knowledge; apply it, use it, do it, make it, be it!
Life isn't perfect and will have failure, but you cannot let this get you down. People become so fixated on not failing that they never move forward. They focus on the upside risk associated with failing, rather than the downside risk of not trying at all.
