What’s the first thing that crosses your mind when you hear the word “failure”? A long list of negative adjectives? That’s because the society we live in views failures with such a negative perspective that suggesting it as a good thing seems strange. We curse ourselves for our failures and whine over our mistakes, but how many times we think of failures as opportunities to learn?
Nobody is born perfect. As humans, we are destined to make mistakes – there is no big deal in it. But what matters is, kicking yourself over your mistakes and learning from them. We can’t learn to walk without falling, can we? But every time you fall, pick yourself up, dust off your butt, and give it another try – that’s what successful people do!
As Zig Ziglar put it, “Failure is an event, not a person.” There is nothing wrong with you. If you have failed, it’s just an indication that your approach was wrong and you can do better in the future. If you are afraid of failing, you won’t ever get the positive inspiration and drive your need to succeed in life.
Let’s have a look at some of the many reasons why failure is a good thing:
1. You Will Analyze Your True Potential
You will never know what you are really capable of unless you fail. When you fail to achieve your goals, you will put in more efforts to get what you want. And this will make you observe what you can really do and how you can unleash your true potential. Your failed attempts help you pinpoint your mistakes. You just have to take the right approach to make the most of your failures, observe your mistakes, and do your best to avoid them in future. That’s what winners do!
2. You Will Learn to Find Alternatives
Failures give you an opportunity to realize alternative ways to acquire your goals. We just need the right vision and positive mindset. Failures are there to tell you that you have been following the wrong path and your strategy was flawed. Learning from failures is probably the best way to broaden your perspective. We learn to view things from a positive and better perspective. Making mistakes is not bad, but repeating the same mistakes is. And if you have learned to take failures as opportunities, you will never repeat your mistakes.
3. You Will Get Another Chance To Succeed
People who give up after failing don’t succeed in life. It’s just another chance after all, and you should consider yourself lucky to get it — nature does not give everyone second chances. Your failures can guide you in the best way about the right approach you should follow to get what you want. Plus, once you fail, you know what mistakes to avoid, and that’s an added advantage.
4. You Will Learn And Grow
We can’t learn and grow without mistakes — we are humans after all, not robots. A bird learns to fly after falling a million times — but it never gives up. And that’s the right approach we all should follow. Failing once does not mean you will fail every time. It’s the best way to explore your abilities and learn to make the most of viable opportunities.
5. You Will Learn Who Your “Real Friends” Are
Our failures tell us who our real friends are when we are disappointed and need to be comforted. Only your real friends will motivate you and make you feel better. Most of the times we don’t analyze that people who we consider our friends are not really sincere to us. But if someone motivates you and helps you in your time of need, he can be counted on.
6. You Will Stay Away From Arrogance
Success often makes people proud and arrogant. But failures know how it feels when your efforts end in vain and you don’t succeed. They know how criticism and negative feedback from people can demoralize you. Failures teach you to be humble even after getting all the success in the world.
7. You Will Uncover Your Passions
To be successful, you need to know what your passions are. And failures can help you analyze your capabilities and interests. Every person has his/her own strengths and weaknesses and failures can help you understand who you really are and what you want to do in life!
8. You Will Find The Right Direction!
You need something to push you and motivate you to give your best show, and failures can really do it. The key is to learn from your mistakes. There is nothing to feel embarrassed about failures. Everyone fails, it’s a part of growing and learning. But those who fail can explore and learn more than others. All great inventions are a result of a series of failed attempts. Einstein did not arrive at the theory of relativity in the first go.
History is full of remarkable stories of successful people who failed but never gave up! Never let your failures bring you down, use them as keys to success. There’s always something you can learn from your and others mistakes. Don’t waste the most important time of your life crying about your failures. You just need to learn to recover quickly from your failures and try again. Hope the above mentioned reasons gave you a good ground to believe that failures are an integral part of success. The next time you fail, take it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Good luck!
Featured photo credit: Keep it up / Steven Depolo via flic.kr
