Achieving success is the dream of everyone, but fear of failure is the prime reason that confines people in boundaries. Fear of failure obstructs them from reaching their goals. It restricts people to their comfort zone, and prevents them from moving forward in life. It is not difficult to understand why most people are afraid of failing. It’s the thought of failure and hard work that scares them, and thus they find themselves stuck in the comfort of mediocrity. Many of us mistake failure as the opposite of success. But, failure is only the stepping stone to success. Nothing worthwhile in life can ever be achieved without a series of failures. In order to be successful one has to make peace with failure.
It may seem a hyperbole, but failures are essential to achieve success. Here are a few highlights to see failure distinctly.
1. We all fail at times.
Failure is unavoidable, we cannot control it! In fact, we must be ready to set milestones of failures, as we set targets of success. Both failure and success are juxtaposed, and it provides us with an undying experience of a bittersweet journey as we move forward in the direction of our goal. No one has achieved success before failing for a number of times. It is the association of success and failure that makes the journey more exciting.
2. It reveals our weaknesses.
Identifying our weaknesses enables us to work on them, and transform them into strengths by keeping track of the pitfalls. We can avoid these roadblocks and make our journey smoother after we spot them. This helps us work more efficiently, thus making us adept at what we do and identify where we need to put in more efforts. This means better results and an eye for obstruction. Failure helps us plan better and enables us to empower ourselves and strengthen our tactics.
3. Failure makes us stronger.
After experiencing failure repeatedly the journey becomes drearier. However, as an optimist and winner would see, it draws them near their goals. It helps them identify what they shouldn’t do saving their time and effort in future. It builds them mightier and more efficient as they move forward with leaps and bounds. Failure is not to be afraid of, but instead cherished. It fetches us the ability to act mature and put in more smart work once we realise the reason why we are failing.
4. Failure gives us experience.
Experience doesn’t come with gray hair alone. It comes with the stamp of surplus amount of failed attempts. Who would tread a path again after discovering that it has a dead end, that it leads nowhere? The answer is, experience makes us mature and habituates us to plan our moves and take calculated risks thus improving our strategy and making us adept at what we do. This experience is instrumental in improving our approach to achieve success and deal with failures.
5. We take more chances.
Failure is the mother of success. It opens us to huge number of possibilities. A sportsman spirit would love it and will experiment with as many choices as available. What an adrenaline rush to discover that the maze has only one destination but it leads to so many roads that can be traversed by challenging our creativity. One can play and strategize their next move by taking a step back on failing, and moving forward with the right step. It should be a balance of intellect and emotion.
6. Failure helps us to improve.
The room for improvement lies not only when we fail, but also when we succeed. Reaching our goals shouldn’t be the only aim we strive for. The sole aim while reaching the end our journey should be to take as many lessons as possible, to subject us to pros and cons of our efforts. Failure, alone is a mentor personified if we open our senses and act on the signals. We can easily find alternate ways if we keep us focused.
7. Failure helps us to discover new paths.
Life is a compilation of moments. What pleasure is it to walk the set path and not take risks? In the pulse of a moment anything can happen. We in the world are open to innumerable dimensions and can diverge our horizons experimenting with different flavours. It gives us more information about our subject and a better understanding of our goal.
8. Failure will helps us discover who we really are.
Failure and success are two sides of the coin of life. If we flip the coin it has always a probability of 50 percent of winning, or losing. Winning is technically the end of the journey. However, failure again opens us up to the vast ocean of possibilities and helps us explore life better. The more we fail, the greater we have understanding of life and our own selves. We discover our strengths and weak points as we tread forward exploring the journey. Life doesn’t always end up us winning. In order to take the better route, we need to walk different roads.
9. Makes us more intangible.
When failure gets to us initially, it usually shakes our world apart for a while. But, with repeated number of attempts, failure turns into a teacher and gives us lessons of how to take the better path. It takes a while even for the winners to adapt to failure. However, as the African proverb goes, ‘Smooth seas never make skilled sailors.’ Failures are a compulsion, why win and end the journey when you can fail and start with a new approach to learn a new technique. It only amplifies our thirst for success thus polishing our skills. Eventually, it starts getting better and we enjoy the journey as we proceed.
10. Success too soon can give false confidence.
Why is it said that some people can’t handle success? The answer is maybe because they tasted success too soon. Well, this might or might not be the case, but there is always something in the veil. This ‘something’ is the lack of failed attempts. Success too soon might not subject you to all the routes a winner must walk in order to establish one’s skill. A winner never quits. There is a fine line between confidence and over-confidence. One has to learn to be grounded as they soar in the sky. This attitude can prevent false confidence and help the winner always learn as they move in their journey.
11. Failure helps us appreciate success more.
Failure allows us to see the dark sides of life. When we have electricity cut, we light up a torch or lamp. Similarly, when we face repeated failures in life, we wonder how tempting the taste of success will be. Every drop of blood and sweat invested in the achievement of success makes us pine more for it. Denial arouses desire, and this is what happens when we realise we are still on the failing end. In order to achieve success we have to toil for it. It’s like the first morsel of food in an empty stomach, after craving it for a whole day.
Putting it in words of Samuel Beckett,“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
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Stay victorious
