12 Reasons Failure is the Best Thing For You
By: Kyle Chastain
Tags: Self Improvement, Failure, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Self

12 Reasons Failure Is the Best Thing for You

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

Have you ever failed despite your very best effort?

When you work up the guts to go out on a limb and try, to put yourself out there and share, you always hope for the best. When you trust another person or have the courage to love them, you risk having your heart crushed and handed back to you. Of course, you always face the possibility of rejection in life, of being laughed at, and of failure. But do you let it stop you?

Fear of failure keeps people dissatisfied with their lives. Why? Because fear of failure keeps a dream locked away somewhere in the back of your mind. It’s behind the prison bars of “What if…”

What if I fail?

What if they laugh at me?

What if nobody cares?

What if they don’t love me?

What if it doesn’t work…again?

What if [insert your excuse here].

But what if failure is your friend?

Sounds crazy, I know. But like so many other things, it’s all about your perspective.

Most people see failure as the enemy, the thing you want to avoid at all costs. But you can embrace failure as a teacher.

Here are 12 reasons that failure is your friend.

Failure teaches you what works and what doesn’t

The only way to assure you don’t fail is to do nothing.

If you do nothing, you fail by default. When you try and fail, you increase the likelihood you will succeed more the next time. Use each failure as a stepping stone to what comes next.

If you’re willing to learn, you can fail your way to success.

Failure shows you how to deal with disappointment.

Disappointment is part of life.

If you fear the pain of disappointment, failure teaches you to detach your feelings from the outcome. When you learn to deal with disappointment, it gives you more courage to try in the future. Failure builds emotional strength.

If you want success in anything, you’ll need emotional strength because success doesn’t take you in a straight line.

Failure can make you more self-aware

Can you name your top five personal strengths?

You can take every personality test or strengths test on the internet. But until you experience failure you’ll never really know where you’re strong. Failure shows you where you need help. An awareness of your strengths shows you how to use your natural gifts for success.

If you aren’t self-aware, you will try to succeed at a game that isn’t for you.

Failure gives you the chance to start over fresh

There is a subtle relief in failure.

When you put yourself out there and take a beating, it’s physically and emotionally draining. Failure brings the sense of relief you’re looking for. It gives you time to recharge and reassess your priorities.

Failure helps you move forward with greater clarity after failure.

Failure gives you the choice to become stronger

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” said Nietzsche.

While that might not always be true, it can be in many cases. What you choose to learn from your failure is up to you. You can use it to build yourself up or allow it to destroy your self-confidence.

Will you get stronger or weaker?

Failure teaches you what you really want

When you face failure, it forces you to look at what really matters.

It’s easy to lose focus while trying to reach a goal because so many things vying for your attention. This can cause anxiety and self-sabotage. The shock of failure brings clarity.

Failure forces you to re-assess what matters to you and helps you gain clarity for a better future.

Failure teaches you how to deal with a crisis

The way you react in a crisis shows how ready you are for success.

Learning to keep your cool when things go wrong is an essential life skill. The ability to stay calm in a crisis gives you an advantage. If you don’t make emotional decisions while under pressure, you’re more likely to make the right decision.

A crisis forces you to face everything you’ve avoided for a long time.

Failure shows you where you can get better

We all have blind spots.

Often, it’s your blind spots that cause your failure in the first place. Even though it’s painful, failure helps you see your blind spots so they don’t sabotage your future success. The more of your blind spots you’re aware of, the better you can monitor them.

You might choose to ask a friend, co-worker, or employee to help you see your blind spots in your decision making.

Failure reveals your true self

They say if you want to know a person, watch how they perform under pressure.

Under pressure, you don’t have the energy to keep up an image of yourself. That fabricated “self” wasn’t real anyway, so you can stop lying to yourself and get on with your life. Stop pretending to be something (or someone) you aren’t.

It’s double the work to keep up a fake image of yourself and try to be successful.

Failure keeps you humble

Failure teaches you that you are not special.

You don’t get a free pass, and the world doesn’t open up its arms for you because your mom said you have talent. If you never faced challenges or failures, you’d be a very boring person. When you realize you aren’t special, your experience can help others in the struggle.

Humility helps you move forward without taking failure so personally.

Failure alerts you to unrealistic thinking

Your dreams need to die.

What I mean is, your unrealistic dreams of success without sacrifice and effort are holding you back. They need to die. When you fail, you gain a more realistic view of success. It gives you a better chance at success in the future. When old dreams die, new dreams can thrive.

Everyone has unrealistic expectations of what life should be like. Failure strips those away making it easier to find happiness and success.

Failure makes you less sensitive to what people think

You’ll be surprised how many people don’t care about your failure.

You’re embarrassed, but other people are too busy worrying about their lives to give too much thought to yours. Once you realize that, you’re free to fail as much as you want. That’s why people who don’t fear failure usually succeed faster than people who do.

Sure, some people may have opinions and share them with you. But the loudest voices are the ones fighting their own fear of failure.

If you want to overcome your fear of failure, the best thing you can do is get out there and fail until you find success.