Failure!! Ugh!! No one likes it!
Everyone wants to succeed, preferably on the first try. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic. You’re going to fail on your journey to improve your mindset and change your life. You’re probably going to fail many times.
If you are reaching out for growth, you will fail sometimes. Remember the stories. Babe Ruth for many years held the record for most Home Runs in Baseball. (He also held the record for most Strike Outs). Thomas Edison is well known for inventing the light bulb. (What isn’t as well known is that he finally succeeded after 10,000 attempts).
So failure is a stepping stone on the way to success! Think of it that way.
So how should you handle failure constructively without getting frustrated? These tips should help you.
1.) Figure out why you failed. Look at your failure analytically. What caused it? What did you do wrong? Is there something you could do differently next time? Or was the failure outside of your control?
2.) Change things before you try again. Did you approach the problem wrong? Change how you do it next time. Were the conditions wrong, the timing? Were you adequately prepared? These are all things you can remedy before your next attempt.
3.) Ask for help. Don’t be a lone wolf! Life is hard, and challenges often require the input of more than one person. Find someone with more knowledge and experience than you and ask them to mentor you or help you solve the problem. You can find someone to help you with any problem, big or small, from an academic issue to work problems to dating. You just have to ask!
4.) Look at and appreciate the progress you’ve made. Sure, you might have failed, but did you learn something? Are you further along than you were before? Of course. Look at how far you’ve come since you started on this journey. Appreciate it and congratulate yourself before tackling your failure again.
5.) Consider adjusting your expectations. In other words, did you try to go too far too fast? You’re not going to create a masterpiece (or become CEO) overnight. Did you try to improve too much at once? Look at your expectations and adjust them before trying again. Remember the one-percent rule -improving by one percent each attempt will get you to your goal faster than trying (and failing) to make big leaps.
Above all, don’t give up! You can reach any goal you set your mind to. You just need to find the right way. It took Thomas Edison over 10,000 tries to invent the light bulb. He used to say that he hadn’t failed; he’d just found 10,000 ways that wouldn’t work!
You can put this knowledge to work for yourself. Follow the tips above to evaluate your failure, adjust what you’re doing, and try again. You can do it.
For more hints on Goal Setting for you and your clients, go HERE.
