Failure hurts, right? When we fail, we feel like our whole life is shattered. A failure hurts us so much that we start questioning every aspect of our life and become so demoralized that we soon give up. When we fail, we feel ashamed of ourselves and think we are good for nothing. Is not it right?
But we have many examples in our society where people are very successful. And when they are questioned, how they achieve success, the basis of their story starts from the zero point, that is, the point of failure. Why? Because failure is a part of life. It is as important as breathing. Is there a single person who has never seen failure in life? NO!
Examples of Failure
Walt DisneyYou know that he was told by his former editor that he lacked imagination and had no good ideas, right? Can you believe this? The person who created all these cartoon shows was told he lacked imagination! J. K. RowlingWhen she wrote “Harry Potter,” she was broke, divorced, depressed and a single mother. The manuscript was repeatedly rejected by many publishers, and see where it is today. He is one of the richest writers in the world. Oprah WinfreyDid you know that he got fired from his first job as a TV presenter and now he’s a billionaire and has his own TV channel?
Ben başarısız olmadım. İşe yaramayan 10.000 yol buldum. -Thomas Edison
Take any area in life. Be it an exam, a job interview, a business you started, your finances, your relationships, any discovery and the list goes on. Everyone has encountered failure at some point in their life. Some people seem to be unsuccessful in more than one area compared to others.
Failure Makes You Stronger
What I feel is that failure makes us a much better and stronger person. I failed in many areas of my life and each time I felt like my life was over. It’s like everything seems darker and there’s nowhere to go and there’s nothing left for me to do in those moments. But in the longer term, I’m grateful to myself for failing. Because failure made me who I am today. It gave me the strength to endure everything life threw my way. It gave me time to re-evaluate my flaws and find my interests.
Discover Failure
Most of the time, we pursue something in life because of pressure or emotional power, or sometimes we continue to live our lives without even knowing what we want from life. For example, maybe you’re pursuing a career or field of work because your family wants you to, or maybe you think it’s a stable place to settle in life, or maybe you don’t even know what else you could do. As you continue to live this way, suddenly you fail and then “Why me? What did I do wrong? Why did everyone else get good grades but I didn’t? Why did they get a promotion and I didn’t? Why did my relationship fail? Why do I do this even though I know I will be disappointed?” you began to question.
Believe me, everyone feels the same way, but once you get over this particular hurdle everything starts to fall into perspective. Ask yourself, what happened then? Are you really interested in that particular field or person? If not, maybe it’s time to start discovering what’s best for you. You just need to strengthen the points you discover and become stronger with it.
If you are already pursuing your passion and even after doing your best it seems like you are failing, then you need to re-evaluate the way you work. For example, start with the process or routine you follow and try to figure out where it starts to drift. Find people who can guide you to fix your mistakes and ask for their help. But don’t give up. Because giving up won’t help you get where you want to get..
Embrace Failure
It is very important to own our failures and accept the fact that we need to be better. Take full responsibility for your actions and be proud of yourself for at least trying instead of sitting around and doing nothing. Noone is perfect! You may see successful people jumping their way to fame and eating on a silver platter. But go and research their journey to where they are today, and you can be sure that they have suffered a lot to get to the life they live today. Because they have experienced many failures to succeed in the field they are best at now.
Benefits of Failure
- Failure makes you more resilient in life. When you recover from your inner turmoil, you become a much stronger person.
- You gain experience in this area where you fail. You learn what works and what doesn’t.
- When you begin to evaluate your process and re-plan a better way to approach it, you grow within. You see everything from a new perspective.
- Failure teaches you the value of success. Maybe you didn’t take the work to be done very seriously before because of your unnecessary self-confidence. But when you fail at this, you realize your own shortcomings in achieving it.
- You realize that nothing is permanent. Failure or success, both are temporary in life.
- Failure makes you fearless. If you fail once, your fear is long gone. You already know what failure feels like, and you pursue it more confidently without worrying about failing again.
- Failure keeps your ego in check. Since you’ve already faced this, you also learn to appreciate other people’s struggles in life.
- Your mindset and perspective changes depending on your life. You learn the true meaning of life.
All these benefits only apply when you let go of the past, learn from it, and move forward. To all the people who are feeling bad about themselves and depressed, please believe me your life begins after your failure for sure. Be hopeful and believe in yourself because working hard and giving your best effort never goes in vain.
I hope you will begin to appreciate your life and see the positive side of failure. Are you proud of your failure?
