Image courtesy of the Dana Foundation
No one actually wants to encounter failure in their life. That’s because when you look at the isolated incident, it means that you haven’t found success. However, with the right attitude, you can use your failure in order to get yourself to success in an accelerated fashion.
Overcoming Failure
The first step to overcoming failure is to accept your situation. Tell yourself that failure is a natural part of life, and that you’re not superhuman so you will fail to succeed at certain junctures in your life.
When you attempt to be too perfect that can just be yet another failure on your part. It’ll cause you stress and you won’t be able to get yourself past to the part of acceptance. You might tell yourself that you’re over it when you really aren’t. You don’t want to be carrying that burden around with you forever.
Your Positive Outlook
The next thing to concentrate on is to turn your negative thoughts into positive ones. If you fail to succeed, don’t be tempted to wallow in it. It’ll mean that you’ve truly failed because you’re choosing to end your road to success.
With the right outlook on life, you can look at your failure as just a stepping stone on your way to success. Your goal is to seek out the silver lining, because it’s always there hiding in any negative situation.
I remember a time when I wanted to be a part of a sports team, I tried and I didn’t make the team. I could have just moved on and blamed others for the failure, but I chose to study the reasons why I didn’t make it. I asked the coach what I could work on and I practiced those skills. To make a long story short, the next year I was on the team and better yet, I was a starting player. I don’t believe I would have accomplished so much so fast had I not encountered the initial “failure”.
How Failure Can Speed Up Success
The above story illustrates how one can use a failure in order to get to success faster. There’s a vast difference between overcoming failure and accepting failure. When you’re in the process of overcoming failure you’re given the unique opportunity to analyze what went wrong.
Take the time to study the exact steps that you took and what outcome you received. Also study the reasons why the failure occurred. Maybe there’s a certain skill you can develop in order to finally reach success?
After this analysis you can draft up a new plan in order to get to success. Only this time you’ll be smarter and better equipped.
Never Give Up On Yourself
It may help you to stop using words like “failure” when it comes to your attempts at success. As long as you’re still trying on that road to success, then you actually haven’t failed. It’s only once you’ve given up that you’ve failed.
Life is tough though. To say “never give up” is easier said than done. Of course there will be times when you feel like giving up, everyone encounters these times. Just ask any successful person that you admire. However, it’s those people that still make the extra effort even when they feel like giving up that reach success. There’s nothing stopping you from being one of these people.
Of course you want to get to success as fast as you possibly can, but you must give yourself proper time. Everyone has their unique road and when you stop comparing yourself to others and just plough forward with your plans, you’ll get there before you know it.
Author’s Bio:
Ever wondered how great successful people achieved great success? You can find the answer in The 77 Traits of Highly Successful People. Mark Foo has brought together 48 personal development bloggers and writers to co-author the success eBook that spells out all of the success secrets of the very successful people. This eBook is available to you FREE and you can grab your free copy now at http://www.77SuccessTraits.com.
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Amazing article with wonderful points, thanks for sharing. “Failure” is a powerful thing that can turn people’s lives around. It is only true failure when you throw in the towel and choose not to learn from what didn’t go right.
Hi Nacie,
You’re absolutely right. Failure occurs only when you give up. As long as you stick to the gun, you always have a chance to turn things around.
Cheers~
Mark
The only true and permeate failure we can ever encounter is when we decide to stop taking action on something. As long as we continue to, work at and strive for results we do not fail, only stumble. So when you do stumble brush your self off and try a different approach train a new skill, and look at what you learned in your last attempt.
Hi Quinn,
That’s a very positive attitude and I totally agree with you. Never give up, never stop taking action. Success will come your way eventually.
Cheers~
Mark
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Image courtesy of the Dana Foundation
No one actually wants to encounter… http://bit.ly/69a6JG…
Great post- you can definitely learn a great deal from “Failure” or better still past results, but as you know its all just information at the end the day. Info that you can use to move you forward in ways that you could have never imagined.
So now I look at life as a series of results and look for the value in them. That way I can never fail I always a winner… http://www.mpdspace.com/blog/personal-development/time-management-the-art-of-becoming/
Hi Lloyd,
“Failure” is nothing more than feedback. So you’re right that it’s information that you can use to move yourself forward. I, too, have learned to look at life as a series of results and seek to use them to propel myself to achieve greater things.
Cheers~
Mark
Great article. Whether a “failure” truly is failure really does depend on what you do with that failure. I graduated from college in December of 2008 – a terrible time to graduate in terms of job prospects – and turns out I was 100% unable to find a job. Instead I started my own business, which has turned out to open a world of possibilities for me and has been a great networking opportunity. So, take your failure and go somewhere with it!
Hi Alexandra,
That’s awesome! I love to hear stories like that. It’s always so inspiring! Congratulations! And I love that you say “take your failure and go somewhere with it”. My gut tells me we have a very smart and brilliant young entrepreneur here.
Cheers~
Mark
I completely agree, too often we get caught up on a failure and think it’s over and quit instead of realizing that failing doesn’t mean we won’t succeed, but just that we haven’t succeeded yet! I actually just wrote a post about this too.
Hi C Louise,
Yes, failure doesn’t mean you’re a failure… It does mean you haven’t succeeded yet. And failure doesn’t mean you should give up… It does mean you must try harder.
Cheers~
Mark
One of my favorite books in this regard is John Maxell’s Failing Forward. It’s so true that the most successful people are the ones who have had a resilient and constructive attitude toward failure.
Hi Steve,
I’ve not read that book but the title sounds good. I’ll probably check it out.
Cheers~
Mark
I thought this article was very helpful because I often can get discouraged by failure, but I don’t really look at the situation itself, just the failure itself. But this article helps me see that I can succeed even more so with the analysis of the failure. Just like trial and error, this can be used effectively.
Hi Shawn,
I’m glad you find this article to be helpful. Everybody gets discouraged by failure so you’re not alone. As long as you now know that failure can in fact be put to good use, you’ll be doing much better.
Cheers~
Mark
I like that you didn’t write alot about accepting failure, but how to move forward once you’ve recognized that you need to. Personally, I failed the bar exam twice. Each time I evaluated what I did wrong and how I could move forward for the next attempt. Ultimately, though, those failures taught me that it was time to pursue a new dream, not because I didn’t believe I could pass, but that I didn’t want success in that area as much as I’d initially thought I did….
Hi Anilia,
It’s good that you’ve come to realize it’s not where your passion lies and that you’re pursuing a new dream. And I’m glad you didn’t hang on to it just because you didn’t want to let the past few years of studies go to waste. Too many ppl do just that which I think is not wise and necessary. It’s always better to give up whatever you’re not that passionate about no matter how much time and effort you’ve put into it and pursue something of your real interest. Life’s too short to stick to something you don’t love. I wish you all the best in your new pursuit.
Cheers~
Mark
Love your insightful post! One way to turn your failures into self help motivation is to ruminate what do you value that is lacking in the current situation? What do you think is missing? By figuring out what you want, you can create a picture of your the life that you want which will serve as your daily motivation and inspiration.
Hi Linda,
I’m glad you like this post. Deciding what you want and visualizing your ideal life is definitely helpful. But sadly, too many ppl don’t take it seriously and just live life by the day. It may be boring to take life seriously all the time, but you’ve got to balance up.
Cheers~
Mark
[...] the full article How Failure Can Accelerate Your Success – PickTheBrain … on the author’s [...]
I actually came up with a simple formula for failure on a post about confidence:
Experimenting + failure = learning + confidence
Simple enough. You just have to be consciously aware when you fail that it is for a positive reason.
Hi Tanner,
Thank you for sharing your formula. I guess it is really helpful for anyone going through failure. I agree it will have a positive impact on your confidence if you’d take failure as a good learning experience.
Cheers~
Mark
Learning start with failure,When child start to walk many time he fail and from this failing he learn to walk.Every other learning cycling,reading writing all other learning we learn with help of failing.Success make everyman arrogant,we donot learn anything from success.
Mistake, danger, calamities,we must well come for our progress. So donot be nervous from your failure.
Hi Ramesh,
While I don’t agree that we do not learn anything from success, I do think we learn much more from failure than success.
Cheers~
Mark
[...] How Failure Can Accelerate Your Success [...]
I like this post… We all have to face failure. Check out this nike video with Michael Jordan on failure/success:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K23zLUL_6QM&feature=player_embedded
Hi Brian,
That’s a great video. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers~
Mark
Good post, especially this time of year where people are already facing “failing” on their resolutions!
I particularly like the point about failure accelerating success. I have been reading a lot on inherent vs. learned talent lately in books such as “Talent is Overrated,” “The Talent Code,” and “Outliers.” One common theme is that talent is learned, and the way it is learned is through a deep practice where actions are methodically taken, and when things are not done write, those “failures” are analyzed and corrected. In this way the learner gets much better much quicker.
Thanks for the great post!