The Best Ways to Embrace Failures

We get it – nobody wants to be labelled a failure. Or at the very least, be known for that one thing you got wrong. Failure can be a difficult thing to deal with, especially at work and even more so when it is a matter of hurray versus yikes!

But here’s another thing you should also know – everyone fails at some point of their lives! The difference is how you bounce back from that failure and learn from the experience. Sure, it’s not easy to embrace but failure isn’t the end of the world. The reality is even the best businesses, the best leaders have had failure before – but it’s how they turned that failure into a learning experience to help them get even further.

And you know what – you can do the same! Failures shouldn’t be seen as a setback but more as a stepping stone on your road to success. Don’t stumble over them, pick yourself up and make the most of the situation. Here are some ways how you can embrace failures for the bigger wins.

#1 Learn from your failure
A manager I worked with once did this: He wrote down the team’s failures on a board during our monthly meetings and instead of harping on why we made these failures, the discussions were more about what we can do to overcome these failures so we wouldn’t make the same mistakes. The focus was not on the failures but more as a learning experience on how to move on and be better. Try that for yourself: Make a list of the things you didn’t achieve for the month or failed to do better. Then ask yourself what you should do so that you can achieve them the following month or how you can better the effort. Now that’s what we call reflecting and learning!

#2 Don’t give up
We know, it’s easier to give up after a failure than to pick ourselves up and say let’s do that again. But imagine if every Olympic gold medalist gave up after his or her first failure of winning a medal! They would never make it to the winners’ podium. Instead of giving up, learn what that failure cost you and avoid making the same mistakes. This helps to reframe failure as a learning opportunity and not a dead end.

#3 It’s feedback, not setback
Repeat this after yourself each time you fail! Failure is a great opportunity for you to reflect on what went wrong. It’s also a great opportunity for you to meet up with your manager and find out how you can do better. Think of it as a way to move forward. Take this story for example: The popular book Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected over 140 times before being published. Each time they were rejected, the authors evaluated, adjusted, and persisted. The book is now published in 43 languages and more than 500 million copies have been sold!

#4 Move on
Sure, some failures are hard to ignore or forget. Give yourself the chance to mull over what went wrong… and then move on. You don’t want that failure to be a burden in your career! When things don’t go your way, don’t stop and give up. Instead, ask yourself how you can work around the issue and move on.

#5 Accept that you will fail sometimes
Nobody is perfect, not even the most successful CEOs! So if they are making mistakes too, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself for your failures. The truth is you can do everything right and still fail. Your job then is to embrace failure and see if instead of stepping stones to success. Imagine if you didn’t fail at all – where is the learning opportunity on how to do things better! So yes, failure is inevitable; the difference is how you view it.

Photo by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash.