Failure– something most people attempt to avoid. What is failure? Not achieving your goals? Not getting a good grade? Or maybe it’s getting fired. What ever failure is to you… most likely it is something you could do without. How many times have you worried too much to apply for a new job, or meet a new person because of fear of rejection and failing? The fear of failure is what holds us back, but without failure you cannot succeed.
Failure equals success and opportunity and as we grow older we tend to forget that, so let me remind you! When you were a baby you did not know how to walk, but that did not stop you. You fell time and time again and got up. It didn’t happen over night, but look at you now! You are a professional walker you can even run, jump and dance and most likely you think nothing of it. So why are you so afraid of failing today? If it took lots of failed attempts to walk don’t you think the same thing is applied everywhere else? It does, but in today’s society we belive we have to be best right now, and if we are not then we failed.
In Carol Dweck, PH.D.’s book Mindset, she explains that the difference between an ordinary person and an extraordinary one is how they react to failure. She says some people have a fixed mindset, a person who feels they have to be perfect and if they are not an instant success then they cannot change; While others have a growth mindset where they understand that success takes determination and drive. To find out what mindset you are, take the test here.
In fact some of the most successful people we have come to know today had failed horribly, but that did not stop them, they had growth mindsets. They knew that today they may not be the best but one day they would. I encourage you to watch the video below to understand my point. You will think of failure far different after than you do now.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzBCI13rJmA&w=420&h=315]Lucille Ball, The Beatles, Walt Disney are some of the most iconic people in history and they got there by understanding that failure was a step to success not the end of it.
“The moment we realize the plateaus we reach are not the end but the beginning is the moment that will determine whether or not we live an extraordinary life.” Tony Robbins
Comment below and share your stories of how failure led to success!