Never stop trying. Failure is not the opposite of success, it's merely a bump on the road to ultimate achievement.
Too often we are afraid of failure, we are afraid of the repercussions of taking risks and we are afraid of the way others will perceive our failures. What we forget is that failure is a learning process and without failure there is no success.
In our society there is a stigma attached to failure. Failure is often seen as a form of weakness however failure is a necessity to growth. How is it that we, as a society, can continuously perceive failure as a bad thing when WE KNOW it is a key part of learning and developing?
As children we learned to walk by failing. We would try to get up, attempt to take a step, fail by falling down and then get right back up and try again. We would fail continuously until one day we wouldn't. We'd stand up take a step forward and keep on walking, and our mothers probably have it all on video. One of our very first failures in life and guess what, Mom is proud because you started walking, you learned to walk by failing.
Now if we would keep the mentality, that failure is only learning, throughout our whole lives I believe we would be a lot better off. Alas, after the emotions and drama that constitute of middle school and the pressure and stress that is put on good grades and high test scores in high school failure is no longer seen as a stepping stone to success but rather a type of humiliation and a weakness.
Some of the most successful people in the world credit their success to failure. Oprah Winfrey who was once told she wasn't right for television, Steve Jobs, who got kicked out of his own company, J.K. Rowling who was turned down by loads of publishing companies before one finally said yes, even Walt Disney, who was fired from a newspaper because he was told he was uncreative, all credit their successes and determination to early failures. All these amazing people have failed before but they never let it define their dreams and neither should you.
I dare you to change your attitude, to think of failure as a stepping stone to success, as a form of learning. Embrace failure, because failure is necessary to leading a successful life.
Failure is necessary because it teaches you how to aim for success almost, reach for the stars, in a sense. It's necessary because it prepares you for the worst and makes the best feel better. It's necessary because it tests your limits and helps you reach your full potential. It's necessary because failure teaches you about fear and how to overcome it. Failure is necessary because failure is a part of life.
Failure is not a synonym for incompetence. Failure is being able to take a risk, learn and try again. So, try something new this week and if you don't succeed the first time learn from your mistakes and try again.
Believe it or not something you'll learn is that failure is often also the quickest way to success.
