No one wants to fail. In fact, most people take it personally when
they do. They’re embarrassed, especially if the failure was a public
one.
Some people are so afraid of failure that they never even try
something new or are very, very hesitant to follow their dreams. What
if they do and fail? Maybe their dreams were just never meant to be and
they’ve wasted their lives in pursuit of something that’s always going
to be out of reach!
But these fears are often irrational, especially when you examine
failure itself. In many cases, it’s not a reflection of you at all.
Those who are really successful will actually tell you that failure is a
good thing and that, in fact, it’s absolutely necessary if you ever
want to succeed!
Here are 6 reasons why you might want to start welcoming failure instead of trying to distance yourself from it:
1. If you never fail, it means you never tried
Failure may be a sign that you tried and didn’t achieve success,
that’s true, but it’s also a sign that you tried. There are many
people out there who are so afraid to fail that they never make an
attempt. They let their dreams go because they just don’t think they
could ever achieve them, so what’s the point? Why fail since that means
the end of the dream?
The thing is, though, that failing doesn’t have to mean the end of
the dream. It simply means you have to get back up, adjust your game
plan, and try again. Sure, maybe you fail several times, but each time
you’ll learn something.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
2. Each failure gets you closer to success
That leads into the second reason why failure can be good: each time you fail,
you’re getting a little closer to success. Failure brings with it
lessons, and if you learn with each failure and apply what you’ve
learned to your next attempt, you’ll be able to get that much closer.
Who knows, that next attempt may be the one that succeeds, and if it’s
not, you’ve learned and grown in yet another way that you wouldn’t have
if you’d given up.
3. Would you rather fail or regret not trying?
Along those same lines, if you never try, you may later feel
something even worse than failure, regret. If you give up now, you may
regret it for the rest of your life. Whatever led to your decision to
accept failure, it’s not worth the regret you’ll feel later. If you
keep at it, you’ll not only eventually succeed and avoid regret, you’ll
find that success is that much sweeter because it took a lot of work.
Instead of failure and regret, you’ll have success and pride in
yourself and what you’ve accomplished.
4. You learn life lessons
In addition to learning something about your approach to your goal,
failure can also teach you life lessons that you wouldn’t learn any
other way. These life lessons help you grow as a person. They can
teach things like empathy, understanding, and compassion.
Most successful people didn’t become successful overnight. They had
to work hard at it, and they had to fail multiple times. This is one of
the main points you might hear a motivational speaker hit on over and
over.
There’s a reason why these speakers are so popular, too—they speak
the truth when it comes to failure, and they can help people see that
it’s not a horrible thing. They also help keep us going. If they can
overcome every failure and reach success, we can, too!
5. Failure tests your dreams
If you fail and find that giving up isn’t really that big of a deal,
chances are you weren’t invested in that dream as much as you initially
thought you were. Failure can show you what you really love and what
you only thought you did. If you’re determined to succeed no matter how
many times you fail, then you’ve found something you truly love and
truly want in life.
This is especially true if you look at why you failed and realized it
was because you simply didn’t really want it bad enough. Maybe you
didn’t put all of your energy into it, or maybe you can pinpoint the
place where you realized this dream wasn’t yours.
That’s okay. That’s just failure teaching you one of those life
lessons that can’t be learned any other way. It’s also likely that this
failure will open your eyes to what you really are passionate about,
and that’s not a failure at all!
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.” – Oprah Winfrey
6. Success and failure are not opposites
So many people think that success and failure are two sides of the same coin, but they’re not. Instead, failure is more like the road to success.
You don’t toss the coin and hope it lands on success—you walk down the
path that failure can show you. When you hit a roadblock, sure you may
stumble for a moment, but then you learn how to overcome that roadblock
and move on to the next one. Eventually, you’ll learn everything you
need to in order to make your dreams come true, and you’ll be that much
stronger thanks to those lessons.
