Failing Doesn’t Make You a Loser
By: Jason Weiland
Tags: Life Lessons, Inspiration, Self, Self Improvement, Writing

Failure doesn’t make you a loser. Winning isn’t everything. Sometimes you can learn more from a loss than you can from a win.

Don’t believe me? Keep reading.

How do you feel when you fail? Do you sulk and cry? Do you curse the gods and wonder what you did to deserve it?

What happens when you fail? Do you give up when you have a setback? Do you wonder if you aren’t good enough? Are you worried about what other people think of you? Do you feel removed from your friends because you aren’t a winner like they are?

Failure doesn’t have to equal heartbreak. With a few simple mindset changes, you can use failure to your advantage.

What is failure?

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ― Truman Capote

Failure is the lack of success. It’s not the end of the world. In fact, it marks the beginning of a journey. When you fail, all you’ve done is find a way that doesn’t work. Failure is progress.

Everyone fails because failure is a big part of life. When you are a toddler, your mother tells you that the hot stove is “ouchie!” But you don’t understand until you try to touch it yourself. You failed to learn the lesson from your mother, but you won because you proved it to yourself.

Everyone fails. Do you think Stephen King or J.K. Rowling were successes the first time they tried to write a book? Mr. King turned to drugs and alcohol when he was getting so many rejections from publishers. Did he fail? You bet, but he didn’t give up.

Look at him today and ask, “If he can fail again and again and be a winner, why can’t I?”

Most of you reading this are creatives: writers, bloggers, vloggers, designers, and artists. Failing is part of what we do. How many first drafts ever get published? How many times will you hear “no” before you get a “yes?”

Failure is how we learn. Failure is learning!

Attitude is everything

How we handle failure and rejection makes all the difference in the world.

You have two choices:

You can be negative and think that failure is the end of the world. You can curse every publisher who rejects you. You can quit before things start getting good. This is the choice most people make. You can be positive and learn from your failures. You can be like Edison and look at a failure as one more way that doesn’t work. You can grow as a person and immediately set your feet on another pathway. You keep going until you find success.

Failing at something doesn’t mean you lost at life. It’s all in your attitude. Will you be positive or negative?

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston S. Churchill

Failing your way to success

I’ve been a much happier person since I stopped thinking failure was the end of the world.

Use failure to your advantage. Nothing brings you closer to success that a little learned experience.

That is why there are so many successful people over 40. They’ve failed so many times that the right way is obvious.

Take your lumps. Fail. Learn. Grow.

One day, after all the failure, you will find your secret to success. You will wonder why you hadn’t stumbled across it before. You will know it’s the right path because you’ve already ruled out all the other ones.