How Do I Deal With Failure? rachelalexandrahill.com /dealing-with-failure/
How Do I Deal With Failure? Treat it as an opportunity Try to think of failure as an opportunity to grow and learn. Be more like a child in this respect. Children want to win when they play games and just because they stumble and fall or lose the first time round doesn’t mean they will give up. You mustn’t either but somewhere along the line we lose that childlike desire to win and hustle. As adults, we expect everything to happen ‘right now’. This is made worse because we live in an ‘on demand’ society with the internet providing immediate solutions. We can watch a programme or film whenever we want, we can stream music without going to a shop to buy it and we can How Do I Deal With Failure? order virtually anything on Amazon by just clicking one button. However, none of us could walk or talk when we were born; they were skills that took time to acquire and master so don’t quit. Failure is part of mastery and I’m afraid mastery cannot be bought ‘on demand’.
How Do I Deal With Failure? Treat is as part of the journey to success In a previous post [I Need A Life Hack] I referred to what Thomas Edison [inventor of the commercial light bulb] once said:
‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work’.
In other words, think about failure as a valuable and necessary part of your journey to mastery. Treat it as an asset. If we didn’t have failure then we would never appreciate success which is ultimately what drives us on to do more in terms of providing value for others and ourselves.
How Do I Deal With Failure?
A while ago, I took the very painful step of having my fictional novel professionally critiqued by a published author. Being honest, I couldn’t even bear to read the comments until two years later. When I did, I realised they weren’t all that bad after all and they really helped me see the wood from the trees in terms of what had worked and what definitely hadn’t. Failure doesn’t have to be catastrophic: it can help us frame the situation and put things into perspective. Those learning curves are bricks in the wall and make you more valuable as a person. One day, your learning curve experiences could earn you money and help a new audience of customers.
How Do I Deal With Failure? Definitely don’t do it alone I repeat, don’t pursue your journey alone. I’ve tried this [what with being a very typical only child!] and I must admit that I was wrong. Totally, completely and utterly wrong. Being part of a community that shares your passion is an excellent way of not only realising that you’re ‘not the only one’ but it also highlights
ways and means of finding a solution to your problem. I think it’s also wise to be answerable to someone else, like a mentor, when you’re experiencing a difficult journey be that a new career or your own business. There are lots of communities out there on Facebook, for example, just looking to connect people in similar circumstances to yours.
How Do I Deal With Failure? Always know where you’re heading How Do I Deal With Failure?
Know where you’re going in terms of goals and intentions. As a private tutor, I always tell my students that when they’re writing a story, they should know how it ends before it begins. This means that they can guide the story like a plane making its descent and landing on the runway [and not the fields or motorway to the side] so it’s exactly where it needs to be. It’s the same in life and business. It’s also true when they say that what you focus on expands. In other words, if you choose to dwell on ‘failure’ then negativity will swamp you and eat away at your confidence. Yes, I have been there and I’ve cried a lot of tears too which achieved precisely nothing except a banging headache. How Do I Deal With Failure?
On the other hand, if you choose to think about how you’re going to improve the situation, there is automatically a paradigm shift in your thinking which creates a more positive feel and spin to what’s happening. Yes, it may have taken me two years to look at the critique I received but I did come back to it with a positive frame of mind and with an understanding that I was learning and mastering the skills required of a professional author.
How Do I Deal With Failure? Always have something to look forward to Looking forward to something, even a hot bath, is helpful and do celebrate the small successes. I’ve always been my own worst critic and I think that in this day and age when so much is expected of our time and resources, we should congratulate ourselves on our achievements. We should also factor in little treats and not punish ourselves for not achieving everything we wanted 100% perfectly. Sometimes, ‘just good enough’ is perfection and as I always say, ‘Perfection is always flawed’. That’s just life and perfection lives inside a Disney film not in real people’s lives. Recently I learned how to use a new advertising platform that completely How Do I Deal With Failure? threw me for quite a few weeks. I will admit to being close to tearing my hair out … However, I did persevere and I am now getting results. It could be something as simple as learning a new shortcut on your laptop or being able to advise someone else on something you have already learned to do well. Life Hack Tip of the Day: How Do I Deal With Failure? = Factor in some easy wins
Sometimes, it really is those ‘easy wins’ that put stuff back into perspective and fire you up to just keep on going. Writing a list and striking out tasks is really satisfying and it definitely makes me feel better so that’s saying something! And, keeping on going, just doing something positive to move forward every single day,
is exactly what is needed to pave your journey to success because doing nothing feels a whole lot worse than doing something. I wish you every success for your digital future! Rachel A Hill LLB [Hons] Digital Entrepreneur, Private Tutor and Author
How Do I Deal With Failure?