8 Tips to Help you Overcome Failure
Failure is inevitable, especially when we take a risk and try something for the first time. But, how would you know the outcome of doing something if you don't try? Would you rather be asking yourself what if for the rest of your life or know that you tried and knew the outcome?
Mistakes and failures can teach you great lessons. Instead of letting them drag you down, you have to learn how to handle these setbacks of life. Be kind to yourself and don't lose hope. The main thing is that you tried to do something others are too scared to do. Always give yourself credit.
Here are 8 other ways you can overcome the perils of failure:
1. Accept it
Failure hurts and that's OK. Don't push away your feelings or try to brush them under the rug by distracting yourself or by blaming others. Let yourself feel, don't paint over your feelings by smiling through it when you really want to yell it out to the world.
If you accept it into your life rather than deny it, you'll get over it faster and learn how to manage failure in a more effective way along the road. It'll be less painful on your emotions and your ego. When you reject how you feel those pent-up emotions will linger and cause you to be moody, pessimistic, sad, or bitter.
2. Failing doesn't mean you're a failure
Once you experience a setback it's easy to think that you're an eternal failure and that you'll never be able to do something right. Don't let these negative and destructive thoughts own your life. Instead, keep these two things in mind:
- Just because you failed this time doesn't mean you'll fail next time.
- This won't define the rest of your life as long as you keep moving forward, take action, and keep learning.
Negative things are only temporary. Stay optimistic and say I can instead of I can't.
3. Learn from failure
Mistakes teach you things that will help you successfully perform in the future. In order to effectively achieve, you avoid making the same mistakes which you wouldn't know about if you hadn't failed the first time. See failure as a valuable form of feedback and a powerful tool you can use in order to improve.
Ask yourself these questions in order to work through failure:
- What's one thing I can learn from this?
- What can I adjust to avoid this mistake in the future and do better next time?
- What can I do differently?
Take your time analyzing these questions and be honest with yourself. Don't rush through them, the main thing is that you look at the situation with a positive perspective and that you're constructive about the issue.
4. Be aware that others fail too
We often hear about people's successes rather than their failures and we forget that they most likely failed too. The reality of the situation is that milestones contain setbacks and you must be willing to accept that. Although people tend to talk about their success stories in a light and positive way, you must keep in mind that you may not be getting the full story.
Talking about failure is hard which is why people are likely to leave that part out. Don't get fooled into thinking that it all came easy. Be aware that they failed too and that in order for them to reach success in the first place they had to learn from their mistakes.
5. Let it out
Don't keep your emotions bottled up inside. Talk about it with someone close to you or anyone you feel comfortable with. Having someone listen to you can help you sort things out and accept what happened.
Talking about it will allow you to see it from another person's perspective and get feedback. The point is to confide in someone who you know will provide valuable advice and help you get back on your feet. Encouragement goes a long way, especially when it's coming from a person you value.
6. Find inspiration
Seek ways to ignite the inspiration to do it all over again. Talk to someone who you know has traveled down the same road you have and reached success. Listen to podcasts or read books which provide valuable information that will help you move forward.
Sometimes doing things that make you happy and keep you in a positive mood can also help. Listen to your favorite song, spend time with your loved ones, or dedicate some time to your favorite hobby in order to feel human again.
7. Create a plan to move forward
Accepting the situation is important in order to move forward. Granted, it's easier said than done since our minds can be our biggest enemy and have us thinking about what happened for weeks. In order to work through this, create a plan for yourself that will help you come out of that dark hole of pessimism.
Take some time to write it down and come up with a plan that will lead you to a positive change. Go back to the questions mentioned in tip number 3 and use them in order to create an effective action plan that will lead you forward. Don't worry about making it perfect because after all life isn't perfect and chances are you'll have to alter your action plan as you go.
8. Take action right away
The action plan you come up with is just the start but the important thing is that you actually have a base to work with. Don't wait to take action on this plan because procrastination is a silent dream killer. As soon as you have something to work with, go ahead and tackle it. Remember this plan is not set in stone so you can always modify along the way, the main thing is that you begin again.