It’s inevitable. Sometimes we fail. And while we’d prefer to simply avoid failure, it’s impossible to get through life without failing at something. So it’s important to know how recover from failure.
A few days ago I wrote about 5 warning signs that failure might be around the corner but I don’t think that gives you everything you need to know. In fact I bet that when you were reading it you thought something like “Yeah, Bryan, that’s great. But what do I do if I’ve already failed.”
I don’t know about you but I’m not really fond of failure. I’ve had plenty of experience with failure and, though it can teach me things I need to learn, it’s still pretty low on my list of things I’d like to do. So, over the years I’ve noticed when I’m likely to fail and I’ve tried to structure my life so I can avoid it as much as possible.
Now, it’s not possible to completely avoid failure. In fact, it’s probably not even desirable to completely avoid failure because we can learn so much from it. But I also think it’s foolish if we only look to our own failures for learning.
Doesn’t it seem smarter to learn from the failures of others when we can?
Seriously, your failure is virtually guaranteed.
You will fail to achieve every single goal you fail to attempt.
It’s that simple. You just can’t possibly be successful at anything you don’t at least try to do. There’s no path to success that doesn’t include intentionality, effort, and moving forward.
So, of all the things that might keep you from moving forward, don’t let fear of failure be the one you listen to. After all, if you listen to it, you’ll fail by default.
I realize this probably isn’t new information to you. But sometimes we need a reminder. So, now that you’ve been reminded, what are you going to do about it?
Why not take the first step right now?
Image credit: nimbu on Flickr.com (Creative Commons license)
Fail Like a Baby to Succeed is a guest post by Aaron Shaver (@shaversrazor), who blogs at aaronshaver.com. I’ve known Aaron for several years and I think you’ll enjoy what he has to say. Aaron’s a youth minister, an actor, a new father, and is really passionate about Jesus. He and his Elaina wife live in Nashville, TN along with their new son.
My 16 month old son, Caius, went fully mobile about 4 months ago. Since he started walking, the adventure of being new parents has shifted gears for me and my wife. We’re now in constant panic/stealth mode. Baby-proofing the house is not enough when your child begins walking and, soon after, graduates to running. Lately, every room in our house suddenly seems to have “Death Trap Awaiting Your Child” marked over it. Needless to say, raising a fully mobile child has tested my reflexes and heightened my ninja/parenting senses.
My boy as also taught me a few things in his 16 months on this planet. Like, when he wants something, he will find a way to get it. And, the word “shame” is not in his vocabulary. Actually, a lot of words are not in his vocabulary…but for the sake this blog… Continue reading
You can’t be successful unless you have at least one thing nailed down. You can do all the hard work you want. You can learn from your failures. You can even learn from the failures of others. But without this, it’s nearly impossible to be successful.
You have to know what’s most important
Really, you have to know what’s most important. If you don’t have a good handle on that, you can easily find yourself derailed in the pursuit of success. You might find yourself working on things that don’t matter. Or you might find that you’ve made trade-off decisions that are contrary to your goals in life. Continue reading
Failure is an almost inevitable step on the road to success, but there is something that you can do that might allow you to bypass failure. You might not avoid every failure but you can avoid many pitfalls by simply doing this one thing.
Learn from the failures of others.
Yep, it’s that easy. Our failures are great ways to learn and to succeed but it’s even better to learn from the failures of others; after all, they’ve already invested time and resources that you might not have to.
The other day I wrote about the three places we can fail on our roads to success. However, if you can learn from the failures of others, you might just skip right past those failures and go straight to success. Think about it: if somebody else has already done what you’re trying to do, or has done something similar, you can pick up where they left off rather than wasting precious time and resources making the same mistakes.
Let’s say that you’re working on the design for a leprechaun-powered car but you’re smarter than yours truly. Let’s say that rather than trying to fail well and quickly, you’ve decided that you want to learn from others, how do you think you could do that?
