The theory of failure as a stage on the road to success
When we say we shouldn’t fear failure it rolls off the tongue very easily. We all nod and we all agree that failure is good. Failure is educational. Failure is character building. Very few people disagree with the importance of failure – in theory.
But in our real lives most of us find failure hard. We struggle not to be discouraged by the setbacks failure brings with it. We live in societies where success is admired and people who succeed are lauded.
There is no doubt that failure is inevitable if we hope to make progress. This is especially true if we hope to do or make something new. How many times did the Wright brothers’ airplanes crash into the ground before they finally succeeded in building a plane for manned flight?
All of that is fine – in theory.
Redefining the meaning of failure
This great post on Sahar’s Blog, The Fear of Making Mistakes: No Such Thing as Failure explores ways of redefining failure so that it becomes helpful rather than discouraging. In order to utilise the knowledge we get from every failure we need to learn to look to the end of things.
To do this we need to endeavour to be clear about what we are trying to achieve (no matter what it is). Then, if we are confident that our goal is worth achieving, maybe we won’t feel so discouraged the next time we fail as we will be happy that we are succeeding in finding out what needs to be changed on our quest towards our goal?
“…make ye a mighty effort, and choose for yourselves a noble goal.” (1)
And because it is true that there really is no such thing as failure and that it really is necessary for success, here’s Michael Jordan…
