One of the true tests of personal development is being able to handle failure. Success is easy you just ride the wave and enjoy the feeling. Failure on the other hand throws up a very different range of emotions. What we do with them is very important and can determine future successes and failures.
Here are some insights into the reality of failure:
- To fail is not to be a failure – At least you have tried. Winning is not always being first sometimes it is knowing that you have done your best, tried your hardest and given your all. That is all that we can ever ask of ourselves.
Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.– Denis Waitley
- Once you have learned from your failures leave them in the past – The worst mistake is to fail to learn from our failure. Once we have learned the lesson leave the emotion behind and move forward, wiser and stronger to face the future. Failure is not a disgrace, failing to learn demonstrates ignorance and that is a shameful thing. We are designed to grow but to think that we have arrived is a false hope in ourselves that removes us from reality. Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death – Ananias Nin
- You are never a failure as long as you keep trying – In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never give up”, now say it three times. If you aim for nothing that is exactly what you will achieve in life. Don’t expect every idea that you have to be a winner and realise that the mark of creativity is to try and try and try again.
- Failure is never final – This is your choice. What are you going to do with your life? Are you just going to play it safe and live as a timid mouse or are you going to discover the true person and learn to accept the adventure that life is.
I have not failed I have just found 10 000 ways that would not work – Thomas Edison
I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward in the work that precedes what the world calls success – Thomas Edison