12 Things to Tell Yourself After a Mistake or Failure

Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure.

Have you ever seen a child learn to ride a bike, or a toddler learn to walk? They stumble and fall numerous times before getting it right. Mistakes are learning opportunities. It takes failure after failure to create success. Believe you can and you are halfway there. And never regret anything, because every little detail of your life, including your mistakes, is what made you who you are today.

Here are twelve reminders to keep you motivated after a mistake or failure:

1. It’s okay. You will be okay. – Take all the time you need to heal emotionally. Moving on doesn’t take a day; it takes lots of little steps to be able to break free of your broken self. Never let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life. Just because today is painful doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t be great. You just got to get there. The best things usually happen when you least expect it. So try to smile in the meantime. Not because life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated, but because you choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things you do have and all the problems you know you don’t have. Read Emotional Freedom.
2. There is no success without failure. – A person who makes no mistakes is unlikely to make anything at all. It’s better to have a life full of small failures that you learned from, rather than a lifetime filled with the regrets of never trying.
3. Positive thinking creates positive results. – If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Being hurt is something you can’t stop from happening, but being miserable is always your choice. Winston Churchill reminds us, “Success is moving from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it. Negative thinking creates negative results. Positive thinking creates positive results. Period. Things always turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.
4. Success is always closer than it seems. – Your mistakes and failures should be your motivation, not your excuse. Instead, place them under your feet and use them as stepping stones. Mistakes teach you important lessons. Every time you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal. The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake. Failure is not falling down; failure is staying down when you have the choice to get back up.
5. You are not your mistakes. – Life didn’t come with instructions. Accept that mistakes will happen. You are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your tomorrow. No matter how chaotic the past has been, the future is a clean, fresh, wide open slate. What you do with it is up to you. Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
6. Life’s best lessons are learned at unexpected times. – Many of the greatest lessons we learn in life we don’t seek on purpose. In fact, life’s best lessons are usually learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes. So yes, you will fail sometimes, and that’s okay. The faster you accept this, the faster you can get on with being brilliant.
7. Mistakes are rarely as bad as they seem. – Mistakes and setbacks are rarely as bad as they seem, and even when they are, they give us an opportunity to grow stronger. You should never let one dark cloud cover the entire sky. The sun is always shining on some part of your life. Sometimes you just have to forget how you feel, remember what you deserve, and keep pushing forward.
8. Not getting what you want can be a blessing. – Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of good luck, because it forces you to reevaluate things, opening new doors to opportunities and information you would have otherwise overlooked. Remember, some things in life fall apart so that better things can fall together.
9. You have the capacity to create your own happiness. – You can hold onto past mistakes or you can create your own happiness going forward. A smile is a choice, not a miracle. Don’t make the mistake of waiting on someone or something to come along and make you happy. True happiness comes from within. Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.
10. Mistakes are simply a form of practice. – Every great artist was once an amateur. The sooner you get comfortable with practicing and making mistakes, the quicker you’ll learn the skills and knowledge necessary to master your art. You’ll never be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work. So get out there and try again. Either you succeed or you learn a vital lesson. Win – Win. Read The Magic of Thinking Big.
11. You are making progress. – If you brush yourself off and keep pressing forward, you will learn something and you will earn another chance to get it right. Remember, no matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying. Don’t waste your time being upset about something you can’t change. Start over right now, implement the lessons you have learned from your mistakes, and do it better this time.
12. Life goes on. – Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later this collection of mistakes, called experience, leads us to success. If it’s good, it’s going to be wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s going to be an experience. Your mindset is at the heart of your success. You have to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you have and be thankful for what you had. Forgive yourself and others, but don’t forget. Learn from your mistakes, but don’t regret. Life is change, things go wrong, and life goes on.