It's okay to try and fail.

All the success stories around you making you feel like a failure? Tried something new and failed at it miserably? Started at a new project/ a job and couldn't understand what the hell was happening?

I have felt completely demotivated a bunch of times when I tried and failed. These are some of the times I did not take it well and even tried to give up completely:

1. When I didn't place in the top 3 at a Toastmasters district contest.
2. Anytime an article or post I have written doesn't do well (as per my standards)
3. YouTube views and subscribers number
4. Weight loss, exercise, and healthy eating
5. Ph.D
6. Financial planning, saving, and investing
7. Maths in school - once got 19 / 100
8. Freelancing as a soft skills trainer
9. Getting to be a journalist
10. Messing up a job interview

The list goes on.....

These are the very failures that helped me become practical, resilient and wiser. Trying and failing at these things helped me become who I am and what I choose to do with my life now.

Just a note: Feeling bad at failure is temporary and subjective - it is amplified for us because we live in a culture of glorified fast success stories.

What can help you deal better with failure?

• Don't take it as a personal failure. Think up 10 other external reasons that may have factored in it.
• Ask for feedback - what mistakes did you make? What did you do right? Amplify on the right things.
• Go back and learn more - it may be a knowledge/ skills gap.
• Have a plan B, C & D. Combine all three to succeed in your way.
• Talk about it/ write out your feelings of despair and frustration. It will help you get over it faster.
• Try something absolutely new - come back to the area of failure after 3 months.
• Change the perception of success and failure. Say to yourself - 'I am a work in progress. This may just be a detour. My real destination is still ahead.' Things that make society happy may not make you happy. Adjust your mindset.

Hoping you bounce back and try again!