How Failure in Life Can Move You Forward

Everybody fails, the only questions is what you tell yourself.

Failure in life is one of the most frequent yet dreaded experiences.

It’s never pleasant to feel that you have failed in life. That you have invested time, effort or money into something only to see a result that is much different than what you hoped for.

But failure happens. To everyone!

Because it’s a natural part of learning, and finding the right place for us, in our relationships, in our careers, in our spiritual pursuits.

It’s as natural a part of life as a baby falling when he learns to walk. This is especially true when you are new at something and just getting started.

Unfortunately, many of us take failure in life to heart and allow it to affect us so negatively that it prevents us from trying again.

So here is a good way to relate to failure that can help you get right back up again and move forward.

Choose Your Goals

A good thing to do after failing is to ask yourself- am I reaching for the goals that are right for me? Could I be investing a lot of effort in achieving something I don’t really want?

It’s important to scrutinize whether you are really setting the right goals for you.

These are the goals that resonate with your inner sense of purpose and what you feel that you can truly contribute to others.

If you sense that this goal is not really what you are inwardly inclined to do, or that you thought you wanted it because someone else was going for it, it might be better to make changes.

Read this article about how to to avoid setting goals because you see others doing it.

In this way, failure can be a great way to align yourself with your most important goals in life, and aspirations.

A good way to discern what you really want and also affirm your ability to achieve it is by creating a vision of your future self.

For example, write about who you are a year from now, except do so in the present tense, as if you have already achieved it.

This will both help you gain clarity about what you want, as well as affirm that you can achieve what you are aiming for to your subconscious. It will empower you to take further steps.

Use my FREE workbook to help you journal and contemplate your next steps! Click the link below to download and use the workbook right away or save it for that rainy day!

Constructive Self Talk

If you know that you are after what you really want to achieve, then you should see failure as a mere lesson about “what is not working”.

Failure is a stepping stone in that it offers you the opportunity to learn from what’s not succeeding, about how you can improve and do better next time.

As the popular story goes, Thomas Edison, the great inventor had failed many times before he managed to invent the light bulb. He is quoted to have said

”I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

So to get up quickly after a failure and keep moving forward, tell yourself “good job!” for learning about what to do better next time!

If you hadn’t tried, you would not have known this.

You have come by valuable information, and you will synthesize it into action when you try again.

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Finally, success in life is something we enjoy momentarily. We think it will fulfill us for good, but it only lasts so long. Very soon we feel the urge to go after our next goal.

So enjoy the ride, the ups and downs, and especially celebrate how much you are growing in the process!