Failure is Good

No one is perfect. We will all fail at something or another from time-to-time. Failing means learning. Learning means progress.

Of course, we don't intentionally fail. None-the-less we all do fail sometimes. It's not the actual failure that's important as much as it is our attitude towards it. Many times we tend to focus on the attendant anxiety. We are so afraid of the feeling of failure that we seek "safe" behavior patterns that produce mediocrity. This is in and of itself a form of failure. We are then virtually guaranteed to not reach our potential because we have programmed ourselves to fear the consequences of trying.

Far more beneficial would be to learn from our errors and go on from there. Facing the fact that we are not perfect is a good springboard from which to leap ahead. Since we cannot go back what's the point of looking back?

Thomas A. Edison once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." This is an example of a truly positive attitude. We think of Edison as the inventor of the light bulb and many other things but do we recognize his attitude? Without his approach to his science, and the fact that he really did fail repeatedly, our own lives would likely be rather different today.

Sir Winston Churchill is credited with, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Churchill's way of dealing with failure not only drove him to personal success as a politician but it also provided inspiration to an entire nation at war.

Fear of failure is a roadblock to success in any facet of our lives. For example, at work our fear of being passed over for that promotion leads to behavior that is likely to prevent even being considered for it in the first place. It is a self fulfilling prophesy. Fear of failure begets failure.

Henry James asserted, "Until you try you don't know what you can't do." How do we know our limits of achievement if we don't test them? Do you one day want to look back at your life and wonder what you could have done? Better to actually know what you have done, and further that it was all you could have achieved because you regularly tested your limits. Fear of failure leads to failure. Don't short change yourself.