Learn how to deal with failure

Published: 06/19/2014 - Updated: 04/28/2016

When we see someone successful, surely we think that luck always smiled at him/her and that is on top because always made the right decisions, however, what we rarely see, is that the success could be caused by the multiple failures that finally gave him/her the experience to achieve their goals.

Whenever you begin a project, there is fear, but why are we so afraid? Surely the answer is to fail, and no wonder, the failure is usually the worst case scenario.

The word "failure" often implies the lack of talent and failing, and often the simple fear of failure prevents us go in search of success, but we should stop seeing failure as a negative, and begin to appreciate the experiences that accompany it.

Failure, an investment

No one likes to experience failure, it is certainly frustrating and unpleasant when we put all our effort, faith and resources to achieve a goal without getting the desired results, however, failure is always a chance to start and avoid falling the same mistakes.

Failure gives us experience, teaches us to be humble and helps us discover and develop our skills, in conclusion, what could be seen as wasted time and effort, should be seen as an investment that will eventually pay off.

Failed and failure

Although they seem synonymous, it is not the same. By saying "I am a failed", we are saying that we have lost confidence in ourselves and our abilities to achieve a goal, while failure is the fact of not achieving a goal, but that does not mean it is impossible, or we may not be able to try again.

So who seeks success must learn to accept failure and learn from the above, or the many failures, because surely we come across some on the way to our goals.

While the fact of failure can discourage anyone, we should not let this convince us that we are incapable.

How to deal with failure?

The first thing to do is to accept failure as an obstacle, but not the end of our efforts. Those who finally achieved success, it is usually because they had to face many failures and decided to persevere despite this.

Allow yourself to identify how you feel about failure and how it affects you to achieve your goals.
Scan the options you have to fix your failure situation.
Make sure you really want that goal, in this way you will have less internal conflict when acting.

Avoid comparing yourself to other people, and your goals with those of the other, each of us has our own pace and each step is important.
Do not underestimate your accomplishments.
Seek help from those you know you can trust to overcome an event.
Do not let the failure determine your future, analyze and try to identify your mistakes.

Famous failed people

No one is exempt failure, even those who believe being successful and were born with a good star had their difficult moments. Therefore, the following celebrities are an inspiration to all who seek desperately success.

Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because of his lack of imagination and good ideas, as well as director of the newspaper said. He also broke several times before realizing his dreams and building the now famous Disneyland.

The Beatles, we can hardly imagine, but the successful band was rejected before achieving worldwide success with the argument "we do not like their music, probably will not succeed."

Albert Einstein, encountered some difficulties in his infancy, he talked after 4 years old, his teacher called it slow, unsociable, and always wandered in absurd dreams. Later he got the Nobel Prize in physics.

Vera Wang, did not design the Olympic skating team uniform of the United States. Later collaborated with Vogue, but never managed to be the editor. At 40, she began designing dresses for brides and today is recognized worldwide for her work.

Overcome this failure

Overcoming failure is not simple, nor easy, but depends on our self-esteem if we felt confident and trust in our abilities, it is more likely that every failure is a lesson that will help later to meet our goals.

So the most important thing is to have a positive attitude, and thus see an opportunity even in the worst case scenario, "this time I didn’t get it, but the next time, I'll make it different." This learning is invaluable, and that is why those who persevere finally get the desired success.

In addition, failure allows us to see how hardly we want to achieve a goal, if you are willing to fight, is because it is certainly something we want with all your heart, but on the other hand, we believe that it is not worth trying again, this allows us to identify if we really want it, so remember, always rescue the positive side, overcome this failure, and start again.

About the author
  • Miriam Reyes

    Miriam Reyes is a professional expert in nutrition and dietetics. She has more than 12 years of experience in caring for patients with overweight and eating problems. She studied at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA), where she obtained a degree in nutrition. Linkedin profile.

6 Replies to “Learn how to deal with failure”
  • pat says:

    there are many more examples of people who didn’t achieve what they wanted until passing several problems! and that’s what make them so strong!

    • Esther says:

      Could you please mention those people? I want to investigate more aobut the topic!

  • Victor says:

    Human has learnt in the bad way that everything has to be won, that there is no place for mistake, and that’s such a bad thinking that we have developed since we were pretty small, it’s a shame… and the human mistake

  • paul says:

    There so many beautiful things about life, and you can enjoy it in such a good ways, one of them is just accpeting the failure as learning!

  • paul says:

    There so many beautiful things about life, and you can enjoy it in such a good ways, one of them is just accpeting the failure as learning!

  • Stacy says:

    I think something needs to be said as well for what “failure” really is. …Often times we set out to do this one specific thing, and maybe it doesn’t turn out the way we wanted it to originally, but something else magnificent does come out of it. I’m not sure the term “failure” even has any truth to it, except for your own subjective and interpretive label placed on it. Does anything really fail? Or do things just happen…whether we had wanted them to or not?