Failure Leads to Success!
What makes us successful is how we deal with failure, mistakes, and let-downs. If we never fail, we will never learn. We need to know that it is OK to try, and also to fail.
There are many great quotes about failure, like “Failures are part of life, if you don’t fail, you don’t learn. If you don’t learn, you will never change.” or “it is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of Failure” – Bill Gates.
The rags-to-riches stories and inspiring failure-first quotes are endless. Why then, do we fear failure, when it only pushes us forward?
Here are the first steps to overcome the fear of failure:
- Determine your goal, and what could stand in the way of achieving your goal. When you identify possible road blocks, you can become more prepared to deal with them. We will always have unforeseeable factors that can stand in our way, but if we prepare ourselves that these are inevitable, it will make them easier to work around.
- Ask yourself “What has the fear of failure prevented me from doing in the past?” Identify what stopped you before, and don’t let that happen again.
- Dream about WHAT IF you succeed. Take the time to think about how great it would feel if you set your fear aside, strove towards your goals and finally made it. This gives you the courage to keep going. Visualization is a powerful tool and one that works both for the positive and the negative, so keep it positive.
- Take small steps to start. Often our goals are grandiose and can be overwhelming. Taking one step at a time and breaking down your goals means that you celebrate success more often and keeps you moving forward. Even if you don’t reach your goal in the time you set, you will still be moving in the direction you ultimately want to go. And since time is going to pass anyways, aren’t you still a success?