Benefiting from Failure
by Dera DeRoche-Jolet

Believe it or not, much of our success is largely dependent upon how we fail, how we view our failures; and most importantly, how we react to them afterwards.
With failure playing such an important role in our success, here are some ways that you can benefit from failure in your work and life.

Learn from Failure

Since we all make mistakes, it makes a lot of sense to learn from them and look for other possible ways to resolve our situation. Failure encourages us to look for other solutions that normally we would not have thought about if things went successfully.

Gain Experience

There is just no substitute for experience. Do you remember going for your first job? You probably found it difficult to find the job you wanted because most employers want to hire people who have had experience.

When we fail and learn from our mistakes, we become a little more aware of what needs to be done in order to achieve our objectives. If we had succeeded immediately then it's possible that we may not have been so enterprising in looking for other possibilities.

Build Character

We can choose to throw the towel in and just forget about our goals or we can learn from the experience, gain confidence, build character and become more the person that we ideally wish to be. Sounds like a no-brainer to me…

Rise to the Occasion

Sure, it's hard getting up after being knocked down over and over again in rapid succession but you'll find a direct correlation between how quick you get back up and how long you stay there as your experience increases.

Become More Honest with Yourself

If you find it hard, or even impossible to justify to yourself why you're doing what you're doing then maybe you're not being honest with yourself about what you want and your ability to get it. If, in the face of failure, you still want to reach your goal and you keep trying then you should go for it.

Gain Strength

If even the small setbacks stop you dead in your tracks and you find yourself melting under pressure then you'll probably give up. Failure and experience tend to make you stronger and make things clearer if you allow them to. At that point, nothing will alter your goal and your self-confidence will increase.

Becoming strong is really the outgrowth of character building. It shows the development of the individual and reflects the change in attitude that brings the best out of us all.

Eliminate False Confidence

Success too soon can give false confidence. Some businesses become too big too quick and then fail. Generally speaking, those who have had problems, learned from them and solved them, have a better chance of developing further simply due to their exposure and experience.

Improve Planning

Failing is one thing, but making the same futile mistake repeatedly is just plain ridiculous. If that’s happening to you, you should probably reexamine your game plan. Although you can do this when you've succeeded there's a sense of gravity about this when things aren't going so well.

Failing is simply a way of finding out that the methods you are currently using didn't work. If you carefully plan and observe, failure will push you in the direction of success.

Discover Your Weaknesses

Are you someone who passes on all the things you don't do very well or would you rather stick at it, making a few errors along the way to eventually master the art?
Use failure as a chance to strengthen those areas that are letting you down.

Develop a Better Attitude

Success is an attitude. Develop a successful attitude and you won’t allow failure to destroy your spirit. You’ll gain strength from knowing your desired goals are one step closer to reality.

The world provides you with an abundance of opportunity so don't take the easy way out and give up because you may have failed. Instead, take advantage of your failures.