“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.” – Edward de Bono
A lot of people spend their lives trying to be as perfect as possible. You know who you are. The individuals with the typical Type A personalities who always try to avoid mistakes and go through life as if on a set plan. They feel as if the future is completely in their hands.
Well, I have news for you: the future is not always clear. Anything in life can happen and you won’t always be able to prevent every little mistake you make. And even if you do, what’s wrong with that? Despite what people may tell you, making mistakes isn’t something to ashamed of. In fact, all who sit at the top of the ladder of success are the ones that have failed the most.
While there many reasons why failing is good for you, but let’s just focus on a couple of things:
You can’t learn from your success
There’s only one thing that you can learn from success; you were right all along. That everything you’ve ever done has been correct. This is the wrong mindset to have. If everything you’ve done is never wrong, how do you expect to grow and improve yourself? Mistakes carry knowledge that success could never possibly emulate. It teaches you to learn from your mistakes, dust yourself off, and keep going.
There’s no such thing as “perfect”
You have to understand that there is no perfect, fairytale “anything”. Not a wedding, not a job, nor a lifestyle. I’m guessing you’ve imagined your life to turn out a certain way, but I’m positive that it didn’t turn out exactly as you envisioned it. It probably turned out to be much more difficult or simple than you expected.
Now that you’ve got the idea, what you should do next is…
Start looking for failure
When you notice yourself making mistakes in whatever you’re doing, don’t despair. Don’t let these opportunities to grow move past your field of perception. Take them and understand the reasons for your mistakes. Over time you’ll become used to failure and you’ll know how to react whenever it shows up. Constantly ask yourself important questions such as “How did this error occur?” or “Can I (or will I) improve upon what I’ve learned?”
Here’s a little story for you. While I was in college, I failed most of my math exams. That’s right, I admit it. I failed. What’s even more embarrassing is that I let these failures accrue because I didn’t think I could rise from them. I realized I had to stop this thinking, and break this cycle.
I first identified the problem. I knew in my heart that I wasn’t studying enough so I had to do more of that.
Instead of just memorizing math formulas and common equations, because of my guilty conscience, I decided to understand the material. (I know I should’ve done this in the first place, but for me, I wasn’t exactly a math enthusiast like others in my class).
I applied what I learned. As expected, I did significantly better on my math final.
We have been brought up to believe that failure is wrong; that if we fail, it is the end of the road. That’s not the case anymore. When we fail, it means we can do better. If we miss the mark, it means we have that much further to go.
Now here’s a question for you, my beloved readers:
When have you ever failed and thought you couldn’t get back up? Are you in the process of bouncing back from failure now? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I suggest you guys check out my new guest post on Steven’s blog.
How embracing the power of youth can lead to success @ Change Your Thoughts
———–
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, or Facebook. It’ll do the both of us a world of good. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.
What a great topic. It IS good to fail (though it feels like it sucks at the time) and we can learn so much from each of our failures. It sounds cliche to say that, but it really is true. Great post!
Awesome post. I have had many things that I considered a failure in my life: not getting good grades in undergrad even though I went to an awesome school, not getting into a top bscool, and being unemployed now. But, I’ve also learned so much from each of these opportunities. I’ve grown up in an Indian family. We’re taught from an early age that we shouldn’t fail. When we got B+, we were asked why we didn’t get A’s. As a result, we developed a fear of failure early in life. I’ve realized now that it’s ok to fail. It’s ok to stop comparing yourself to others. For me finding a job is the process of bouncing back. To get myself together, I launched my blog, I’ve learned about ways to make money online, and really invested in myself during this time.
@Dani They are cliches because they’ve been beaten to death so many times, but they’re true nonetheless. I’m glad you liked my post.
@Srinivas I know how you feel. My parents are the same way, and I have a few Indian friends so I know how high they’re parents’ expectations can be. They just want us to be perfect children when in reality that’s not always the case. Don’t fail on purpose, but if you do your best and you make mistakes that’s okay. Congratulations on launching your blog! I can already see that it’s coming along nicely. I’m confident you’ll do great in the long run.
I’ll tell you what, John, cliches got to be cliches because they tend to be true. This is a fantastic post that reminds us to embrace our failures as well as our successes. Great job!
By the way, the blog is looking wonderful! I’m liking this theme.
Hey Lisis! It’s about time you got over here!
I’m glad you liked the post and my theme. I got it free from woothemes… after I had already paid for an overly-complex premium one. I should of gone with simplicity in the first place.
Hi, some thought provoking stuff there… I think all bloggers go through transition phases “what’s working, what’s not” etc… It seems to be a constant exercise in successions of “failures” You’re right in suggesting that sometimes we need to be doing things wrong in order to know what to do better…
This is really a post that embodies the lessons of life. I’m not a baseball fan but i love comparing its successes to real life.
In baseball, you’ve had a career year if you hit the ball three out of 10 time (batting .300).
Think about that. So if they fail 7 out of 10 times, what’s stopping us from a vision or venture that we may fail at.
Failing is the Fertilization for success. It’s just a pre- requisite.
Just like when your in college and you have to take math 2000 to get to math 3000.
Its the same with success.
You got to go from lecture ” your gonna have to fail” to lecture ” Keep failing…..[lol] in order to be successful!
Elbert Hubbard:
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”
@Ross Thanks for reading my material. Not everything will work out, but why let it go to waste? Allow it to teach you a lesson you wouldn’t have learned otherwise.
@Torrey Glad to see you. I don’t watch baseball either, but it really can teach us a lot about life. Everything we do IS life. We just have to pick out the right lessons such as failure leading to success.
@Jonathan Hey Jonathan. I like what you said about failing being the fertilization for success. As I’ve said, you can learn a lot from what doesn’t look very knowledgeable. You’ll never know what you’ll find.
Thanks to everyone for the comments. You guys rock out loud!
I really like that opening quote, it’s pushed me to participate and throw out my own ideas more than just reiterate or discuss someone else’s.
success is getting up one more time than you fall down