Posts Tagged ‘overcoming failure’
Why Your Failures Are Really Success
Self growth article brought to you by Inspired Abundance
When something doesn’t go your way, what’s the first thought that pops into your head? Do you chastise yourself? Or do you reassure yourself that you are growing stronger and wiser with each challenge you face?
In reality, it’s not your successes that make you a stronger, more successful person; it’s your failures.
This may sound odd, but each failure you have is actually a success.
Why, you ask? Because it gives you the opportunity to improve, learn, and try again. Let’s take a look at a couple of the world’s greatest failures that lead to the some of the most ubiquitous inventions of our time.
- Did you know that 3M’s greatest failure was inventing glue that won’t stick? That glue became the basis for the sticky backing on the “Post-It Note.”
- The scientists at Pfizer were trying to create a medication that treated high blood pressure in men. It failed to affect blood pressure, but it had one unexpected side effect. We now know this drug as Viagra and it’s considered one of the most successful failures ever.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that each failure you encounter will land you with an immediate success. But it’s always a stepping-stone along the way.
You can only appreciate success after you’ve failed
Thomas Edison had an incredibly positive attitude about failure. When he was questioned as to why so many of his experiments were failures, he responded by saying that he never had a failure in any of his experiments, rather, each experiment helped him discover another way that something would not work. In reality, sometimes the only way to know whether you’ve succeeded is to fail.
Learning How to Deal With Disappointment
Dealing with the disappointment of failure can be tough for adults as well as for children. But everyone experiences failure at some point in their lives and teaching our children how to deal with the disappointment is a critical life lesson.
Can you imagine a young adult, either a teen or college student, dealing with their first failures in the workplace? A tantrum at any age is not appealing, never mind from an adult who should know better.
Consider the very wise words of Winston Churchill:
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
What did he mean exactly? Well here are three reasons why failing is a good thing:
- Inspiration. Before you laugh, think about your childhood when you didn’t get something right the first time. What did you do? Tried again and again! Each time the thought in your head was, “I am going to get it right this time!” What better motivation do you need?
- Humility. No one is perfect, sometimes we need to be reminded of that very fact! Can you imagine a world where no one ever failed and we all walked around thinking we were God’s gift to the world?
- Learning. Success makes you feel good, but failing teaches you a lesson. Think back to the first time you swung a bat, learned to walk, or tried to eat with a fork. Did you do it right the first time? Of course not. Did you figure out with each failure what you were doing wrong? Well if you can swing a bat today, walk and eat with a fork then I guess you did!
Failure brings positive change and success to those who are resilient. Are you?
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How To Overcome Failure
Personal growth article brought to you by Inspired Abundance
A few years back, Disney released an animated movie called “Meet the Robinsons” that had such a deep impact and meaning … as we’re finding so many kids movies do. The point of the story is to celebrate each failure you have because it gives you the opportunity to try again.
Most people make the mistake of thinking that, just because they failed at something, they should move on. Or, if they failed it means they were never meant to succeed at it.
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Failure can be a good thing
When you’re trying to accomplish something, failure is actually the best thing that can happen to you. Seriously! Do you think the light bulb was invented the first time around? No! In fact, Thomas Edison took thousands of tries to get it just right!
What about the first wheel or the telephone? Of course it takes multiple tries by multiple people to reach success, but the key point to remember is that you have to fail in order to know that you’ve succeeded.
Real Life Examples of Failure
- Think of a toddler learning how to walk. Although they give a fair share of tantrums during the learning stages, they pull themselves up after each fall and try to walk again. Instinctively they’re teaching themselves how to perfect the movement all based on their past mistakes or failures. It’s a trial and error process!
- People struggling with weight loss often feel like failures when they gain weight while dieting. Keeping a weight loss journal can help them track their progress and learn to recognize what triggers them to fail. Perhaps there are emotional or physical triggers that can be prevented. Learning from these mistakes will teach them how to combat those same problems in the future.
There is another benefit to failing: failure opens doors that will allow you to find out what you’re really destined to do. This happens in college all the time.
You Find Yourself Through Experience
Certainly you know at least one person who went to college with the intent of getting one degree and as they went through their course work, having their successes and failures, they discovered a new career interest and changed their major.
Think of a student who went to college to become a nurse but soon realized what they really enjoy is teaching. The whole reason they were going into nursing was to help educate people to improve their lives and they found the best way to do that is not as a nurse, but as a teacher. There’s nothing wrong with that!
As long as you’re able to learn from your “mistakes,” then they’re not mistakes at all – they are opportunities for success! There’s always something to learn from each and every situation and once you understand the lesson, it will make you a better person.
Become Stronger and Wiser
Failure makes you a stronger person. Imagine what it would be like if everything you did always went your way. Imagine that you were successful at everything you attempted your whole life and then one day it happened… you failed!
You failed so badly that it caused you to lose everything. How in the world would you deal with that failure if you’ve never had to overcome an obstacle before?
Failing allows you to become more resilient so you can always figure out a way to move forward. The first wheel may have been square and it moved, but it was wobbly and eventually fell over, but the inventors never gave up! They began to figure out how to make it rounder so it would roll smoothly.
You can do the same in your life! You can’t give up, you have to pick yourself up and figure out a way to roll forward, stronger than ever! Gain strength by learning to overcome failure by looking for the lesson and continuing to move steadfastly forward toward your dreams.
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