Failure is Necessary

You may have heard the saying ‘If you have never failed, you have never tried’. Failure is a good thing, it measures your progress. If you want to be successful, it's impossible to avoid some failure along the way. We've been socially conditioned to believe that failure is a bad thing. For many of us, we experienced being judged whenever we made a mistake, so over time we decided we didn’t want to even try. Especially when something felt particularly difficult, because we didn’t want to make mistakes and feel punished.

Social pressure is incredibly powerful. It’s in our biology to want to be effective and efficient. We want the quickest and easiest way to avoid failure and pain. The truth is it's our failures that lead us to our ultimate success. Instead of looking for only one route, it’s important to be open to exploring many, to see what works and what doesn’t. Especially learning to be ok when things don’t work out. This means you are getting one step closer to figuring out what will.

If you spend too much energy going down one path and it goes nowhere, you see yourself as a failure. Only because you have to start the whole process over again. Whereas if you explore openly, without attachment, you won’t be as invested in a single outcome. The greatest success often comes after many failures. (Consider that JK Rowling’s Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times by publishers!) 

Failure expands the way you think. It forces you to find another way, which would not have happened had you not failed. When you become totally focused on achieving the goal in a specific way, opportunities for greater success can be missed. Every time we fail and find another way, our self-confidence grows rather than shrinks. You need to weigh up the cost of your failure. What would be the worst-case scenario? When you shift your mindset to testing the waters you will be amazed at the results you get.