As we approach the end of January, I hope you’ve had the chance to fail this year. Failure isn’t fatal. It isn’t the end. You can recover. And become better from failure.
Yet, so many of us try to hide from failure. We think if we fail, our people will look at us funnily. They may think we don’t have what it takes to lead well.
To that, I say they’re wrong.
Great leaders are failures. They’re experimenters. They’re willing to try to see what might work.
Photo by Francisco De Legarreta C. on Unsplash
Why Fail?
Failure is a stepping stone to your next step of learning. You can’t learn unless you fail.
Think of a baby. They fail hundreds, if not thousands, of times in their early years.
Every time they try to pull themselves up to take their first step, they fall down. Then, one day, they pull themselves up, waddle across the room, and everyone is excited!
It’s a failure. It’s also a learning moment.
Babies learn by failing. WE learn by failing.
We should fail because we learn through failure. We discover what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be tweaked. When we give up failure, we give up learning.
That’s the reason to fail. We fail so we can learn.
How To Learn From Failure
Many people fail but never learn. They get stuck in a cycle of failure. Each action they take seems to lead to another failure and another.
Why? Because they’re not willing to learn from their failures. I’ve got three easy ways you can use failure to grow.
Examine what went wrong:
An unexamined life is a life of failure. So, begin to examine your life and your failures.
What did you do wrong? What could you have done better? Why did the failure happen?
When you begin examining your failures, you can find ways to prevent future failures.
Implement what you’ve discovered:
Okay, now that you know what went wrong, what’s next? You must implement what you’ve discovered.
Was there a missed step in the process? Ensure the step is followed every time. Was a key player missing? Find a way to ensure they’re always involved in the decision-making process.
The more you implement the changes that must be made, the more you’ll learn from failure.
Stop what doesn’t work:
Have you ever met someone who’s stuck in a cycle of failure? They’re not growing, constantly frustrated, and ready to give up.
But the one thing that never changes with them is the actions they take. They do the same thing, regardless of the outcome they experience.
You can’t learn from failure if you’re unwilling to stop what you’re doing and try something new. If you’re constantly running into failure, make sure you’re not doing the same things again and again.
Have You Failed Yet This Year?
Have you failed yet this year? Once again, I hope you’ve had a chance to experience failure. I hope you’ve had an opportunity to examine the failures and learn what not to do. I hope you’re constantly looking at your life to see what you can do to improve your job, workplace, and life.
The more we fail and grow from the failure, the more we’ll be able to say we were successful.
Are you ready to fail?
Quotes On Failure
We’ll end this article with a few empowering and inspirational quotes about failure. I hope you’ll take them to heart.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. KennedyThe secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
Paulo CoelhoIf you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.
Ken RobinsonI can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
Michael JordanIf you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want
Richard YatesWhen we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.
Eloise Ristad
