How to Productively Use Failure

Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.- Napoleon Hill

Everyone fails from time to time. Surely, you did not learn how to ride a bike properly on the first try. More than likely, you fell down a few times. Maybe you got frustrated when you could not ride properly, especially if you had a friend who learned faster than you did. Some kids keep their training wheels longer than other kids because they need a longer time to learn how to ride.

Though you might not have been able to ride on the first day that you got your bike, you probably learned something about what you needed to do to stay upright. After a few tries and with some practice, you were likely flying down the streets of your neighborhood with no problem. With your first failures you learned important things about riding a bike. You learned how to start, how to balance, and how to successfully stop. Failure can lead to success, if you know how to use your failures productively. If you can learn from your failures, you can apply what you have learned to later attempts to succeed.

Every time you fail at something, you learn something new. So instead of seeing failure as something negative, try to see it as an opportunity to learn something new. This way you can be a happier person, someone who does not get terribly distraught or distressed over his or her failures. You can make them into something productive. Failures can come in all things, at school, at play, or at work. While not all your failures will be as clear cut as falling off your bike, you will always be able to learn from them. Many years from the first time you fall off your bike, you will be at work. Maybe you do not perform as well as you could on a project, or maybe the client chooses another company instead of yours.

Nonetheless you can learn from those situations. Maybe you should take more time to prepare for your next project. It could be that you should work with different people at your office so that you are more productive. If the client chooses another company, you should take the time to review what you said and did. Maybe you will find things that you can improve. When you fail, do not get depressed, discouraged or frustrated because you can turn the negative situation into a positive one.

Take a minute and think about what you have done and what you can do to improve yourself. Like learning how to ride a bike, you need to know how to start something, how to stay upright and balanced, and how to successfully stop without skinning your knees. You have already started learning from your mistakes.

Reader Actions! Will you continue to make your failures count and turn your failures into successes? What steps will you take to be successful today?