Are you always afraid of failures?
“Failure is the first step towards success”. Maybe you have heard this quote said to you mostly when you stumble or fail in life. In life, we face setbacks, disappointments, rejections and criticisms, mostly when we plan to take a new challenge. Since we are conditioned to avoid failure, we burry our heads not ready to face such challenges. A nine-month baby will keep trying to walk even after their first fall. Meaning, if they give up the first time, they will never be able to walk in their lifetime.
Most successful people can attest that failure was part of their journey. For example, Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times in His dream to invent electric light bulb. When asked by a newspaper reporter if he felt like a failure and if he should give up, after having gone through over 9,000 failed attempts, Edison simply stated “Why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitely over 9,000 ways an electric lightbulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.”
If Richard Branson listened to people who told him he can’t achieve anything without a diploma, he would not be one of the most successful entrepreneurs. From his experiences he wrote “I suppose the secret to bouncing back is not only to be unafraid of failures but to use them as motivational and learning tools’’. You can read about 10 people who succeeded after failing.
In our journey to success, we need to keep in mind that we are at times going to fall. We can only learn how to rise only if we encounter certain circumstances. When we fall time after the other, we are able to come up with different strategies to rise up. Note that every time you fail, you draw closer to success. embracing positive attitude and action turns your failure to success.
What is the Meaning of Failure?
Failure can be defined as not attaining the desired outcomes or goals. It means you have fallen short of something. It means that you have done a lot to reach to that point, only that the outcomes didn’t turn as you expected.
For example, if you have a goal to save by a certain date, you cannot consider yourself a failure just because you omitted to save one month. What is important is attaining the overall objective within the stipulated time. Meaning you can save double amount in the next month to compensate the previous month.
Reasons why Failure is the First Step to Success
Think of this: you can’t fail if you have not tried. Even if you don’t accomplish your goals, at least you will have learnt in the process. Remember, when you fail you get closer to your success. The following are 5 reasons why failure is a step to success
1. Failure gives you experiences that you wouldn’t have otherwise
The best lessons in life are not learnt from books but from experiences. Failure gives you an experience that theory cannot give. Meaning, there are some lessons that you can only receive from the experience of failure.
2. Failure can be used as a motivating factor to try again
Failure brings some motivation to get back and try again. Mostly when you want to prove that you can do it again and succeed. This is seen with sports teams who fall short of the ultimate championship victory. Postgame interviews reveal that players are motivated to come back the next year to try again. As a result, they practice more, they learn new techniques, and they prepare themselves to try again.
Likewise, you can use your failures as a motivating factor to becoming better. Failures opens up for you, areas that may require some improvement. Working on those areas of improvement, you are able to accomplish your personal goals.
3. Failure helps you avoid mistakes made earlier the next time you try.
Once you make a mistake, its likely you will not repeat the same mistake another time. The experience got from failure can be used the next time you try.
A simple example of this is getting lost while driving. One wrong turn can take you far away from your intended destination—causing you time and frustration. However, the next time you venture to that destination, you’ll know what paths to avoid.
The key to using failure as a lesson for the next go-round is to reflect and understand what went wrong. This is the only way that failure leads to success. Without doing so, you’re bound to make same mistake again.
4. Failure can be used to teach others
Sometimes we learn from the experiences of others. Whether success or failures, there is a lesson to be learnt. We can learn a journey of success from those with success experiences we also can avoid failures by avoid that which made others fail.
Sharing our failures with others can allow them to avoid mistakes we’ve made so that they can reach their goals much sooner. So don’t be ashamed of not reaching your goals if it can help someone reach theirs. Your failure is the first step to success for others as well.
Science is a great example of everyone benefiting from the failures of others. Every day, researchers conduct experiments that provide more information that can advance science and technology. Much of this includes failed experiments that teach us new things that we wouldn’t learn otherwise. This becomes shared knowledge that we can use to advance society.
5. Failure builds resilience to keep going
The difference between failure and success is resilience. Resilience is the ability to keep going in the face of failure and adversity. To have resilience, you must experience hardship. You can’t have resilience if you don’t have some form of failure or adversity.
If you have seen a child learn to walk then you can define resilience. They fall time and again. Every time they fall, they rise and try walk again. Despite the challenge they keep trying. This is resilience.
People with resilience end up being successful since they go past their failures. Therefore, if you want to reach your goals, you must use your failures as strength to move on.
