Well Done You!

 

Have you ever failed at something in your life?

I doubt that there is any person on this planet who will say NO to that.

You might have failed and failed often (by the way that is a great trait to have), but let me ask you, how do you deal with your failures?

Do you indulge yourself in self-pity, complain, hit yourself over the head, shout at your family and friends, get drunk or just sit there thinking about the whys and hows for days without end?

What does this word, failure, mean to you? What emotions does it bring forth?

Does this word frighten you and you avoid it like a plague, or do you invite failure instead, and think of it as an inevitable step on the ladder of success?

Life is simply a collection of tiny moments stringed together in the stream of Time. There come moments when you feel you have failed at something, and then there come moments when you feel you have succeeded.

It is a perpetual happening. If you wanted to be alive this morning, here you are, ALIVE! That is a success, if you think about it. But you don’t think that way. You take it for granted.

Every moment can be a success or failure, depending on how you choose to think about it.

Usually your mind gets stuck on failures unnecessarily, and in the process it creates unwanted stress.

I call this—the failure mindset. Absolutely useless but common, nonetheless. You have to avoid this mental trap, this pessimistic thinking pattern. It doesn’t serve any purpose except making you feel bad and tense.

Whenever you see the thoughts of your past failures rising in your mind, immediately be alert and change the way you think about failures.

Failure is just information. Information about what doesn’t work. Embrace this knowledge and use it to reach at what does work.

Think of failing at something as a filtering mechanism of life, that is activated so you may succeed eventually.

Your failing at something does not mean that you are a failure, as a whole. Don’t extend its boundaries unreasonably. Your actions may have failed to bring about the results you were hoping for, but that doesn’t make you a failure at all.

There are no such people who don’t fail. We all go through “the failing phase”. That is just how life works. Accept it.

If you failed at one thing, that does not mean that you will fail at everything else too. That is simply not true. Look around you and you will know what I mean. We fail at certain things and we succeed at some—all of us.

To be willing to fail and fail often is a great mindset to acquire. Why? Because it increases your chances of success with each new failure you face. Look at the life histories of great people and behind the glamorous veils of their successes you will see a long chain of failures which they dealt with successfully, to succeed in life.

Remember failure is just a state of mind. It is not good or bad but you make it so by painting it emotionally in one way or the other.

Failure is not the opposite of success. In fact, it is a vital part of every success.

I love this quote from George Bernard Shaw.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

—George Bernard Shaw

Redefine the word, failure, for yourself. It will empower you and help you succeed in life by making you accept your failures gracefully and learning from them.

Next time you fail at something, instead of indulging yourself in self-pity, pat yourself on the back, dust off the emotional dirt, stand in front of a mirror and say, “Well done You! You are one more step closer to success than ever before”.

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SHARING IS CARING