We all know that feeling. You've put in all the hard work, and you finally achieve your goal – only to realize that it's not what you wanted after all. It's a letdown, and it can be really tough to overcome. But successful business owners have faced failure time and time again, and they've still managed to reach the top.
The word failure is often used to describe a situation in which your desired goals were not realized at a specific point in time. There are many reasons that could have played a part in your goal not being realized and absolutely none of them have to do with your value as a person.
Let’s break down some of the ideas behind unhealthy views of failure and see how taking a more positive approach can help you realize success:
If you are trying out for the high school basketball team and you don't make the cut, this doesn’t make you a failure. It simply means that under these specific circumstances, the coach didn’t believe that you possessed the necessary skills to play on this particular team at this point in time.
What much of the pain stems from when not reaching the desired goal is your attachment to outcomes. If you define your own value and worth as a person by whether or not you make a sports team, you’re setting yourself up for that ugly seven-letter word.
It is for this same reason that those who value trying their best regardless of the outcome have more confident and unwavering views of themselves.
You too can have this view when you realize that you’re not responsible for certain outcomes after you do everything in your power to achieve them.
If you're not currently doing everything in your power to achieve an outcome, then start doing it today! If you already are, then sit back and relax, taking solace in the understanding that you’re doing everything you can and cannot ask more of yourself.
It may be worthwhile to step back and assess whether or not this is a matter of a deficit in a particular skill set or something in which allowing yourself more time to reach the original goal is all that is needed.
These are the questions that successful people ask themselves when encountering roadblocks to the outcomes that they want to achieve.
As soon as you begin attaching your self-worth to these outcomes, you’ll likely be overcome with emotion and less capable of using sound logic to increase your chances of success later down the road.
In order to overcome failure, you must experience a dramatic shift in your outlook on the meaning of failure and success.
No matter how much you want to be a Hollywood movie star, if the steps that you are capable of taking to bring yourself closer to that goal are limited at this point in time, you’ll be subjecting yourself to a constant state of stress by continually expecting yourself to achieve greater results.
Patience will be your friend in changing your thinking about these fundamental concepts and it is also a virtue that nearly all successful individuals possess in ample amounts.
Failure doesn’t have to be a dirty word. In fact, it can be one of your biggest allies if you let it. When you understand that failure is just a stop on the way to your ultimate destination, it becomes much easier to dust yourself off and start moving again when you inevitably stumble. If this article helped change your perspective on failure, we hope you’ll share it with others who might benefit from reading it too. And don’t forget to check out our other articles for more great tips!
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