Tag Archives: learning from failure

Making failure work

14 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by in Advice, Attitude, Self growth

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This week has been awful so far.  It seems that there is bad news followed by more bad news and then horrific news.
I was actually going to write about some of this news but I’ve decided that we all need a break from bad news.
There is, however, one huge thing that we can learn from all of this bad news, and that is that we should really count our blessings.  I’ve seen tweets today from people narrowly missing (by seconds) the collapse of a bridge and a woman who was late for work and because of it, she missed being hit by a car that ran into the bus stop that she should have been standing at.
Today is a good day to take a deep breath and really focus on how lucky we are to have what we have, to be alive and even to be able to take that deep breath.

So, onto lighter things (and South Africans, please remember to keep everything in perspective this weekend – this is a lighter thing) – the Rugby World Cup.
This is the tournament where South Africa lost their first match against Japan.
People were disappointed in the team and a lot of people lost faith in the team’s ability to even win another game.  Predictions were that we would be knocked out of the World Cup in the first round.
But where did we end up after the first round of matches?
At the top of our group!
I have a very strong feeling that if we had not lost that match against Japan, we may not have continued to play in the tournament so well.

Sometimes you need to fail or to lose in order to build yourself up.
You really do not have any idea how amazing you are and what a survivor you are until you are tested.
We don’t want to be tested and we don’t want to fail because failure is generally seen as a bad thing.  Stop seeing it like that!
Failure is an opportunity to learn, to grow and to succeed.
Count your blessings that you have the opportunity to fail, because one day you will look back on this and say:
“I don’t regret a thing!”

Braving a new door

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in Advice, Being brave, Change, Life Lessons, Self growth

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I’ve spent a lot of time this week watching the Winter Olympics.
I am in awe of those athletes who get to that level of excellence.  They drive themselves to get to that level of their sport and aim for the very top.
What amazes me more though is the athletes who get to the Olympics knowing that they are not going to win medals.  They go just for the experience to be an Olympic athlete, to have the opportunity to beat their own personal records. Believe me I certainly tried, and failed, to get to that level.

How do we make it through life when we have all these wonderful goals and dreams that we can’t achieve for whatever reason?
Is that a failure?
Is it a sign that you were on the wrong path?
Or maybe you need to ‘fail’ in order to give you the much needed opportunity to grow and get out of your comfort zone.  You need to live your life and experience it to the fullest in order to reach your goals.
The thing is that your goals may be your focus but maybe it is not where you are meant to be.
I will tell you this: when my Olympic dreams started fading I thought that I would never be ok.  But once I had been miserable for a while and then picked myself up, that failed dream opened up a whole new world for me. And here I am!

Always be open to new opportunities, knock on any doors that you find and don’t ever be afraid to go through them because you may be surprised at what is on the other side!

Does failure equal success?

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Advice, Attitude, Fear, Self growth, Success

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Og Mandino, the author of numerous books including The Greatest Salesman on Earth said, “Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment.”

We live in a world where there are so many expectations placed on us to succeed and a large amount of those expectations are from ourselves.  This crazy, unrealistic drive for perfection.
We want our relationships to always work.  We want to succeed in our careers.  We want to be brilliant parents, outstanding scholars and upstanding members of the community.  And most of all, we want to be recognised and acknowledged for all of the wonderful things that we do.  And that doesn’t leave any room for failure, or for things going wrong or not according to your great and wonderful plan.

If you believe in perfection, then there is a good chance that you believe that failure is a bad thing, something to avoid at all costs.  So, it is interesting that when Mandino was asked what the secret of success was, he answered, “You should triple your rate of failure”

When you make mistakes, you learn from them.  You learn not to be afraid of failure.  You become a stronger person when you realise that you have overcome all of the obstacles that you were so afraid of.
And of course, how do we recognise perfection if we haven’t actually seen the other side?  How do you know that something is really working if you haven’t felt what it feels like for things to be falling apart?
It is said that “a head full of fears has no space for dreams.”
So fear of failure doesn’t allow you to live those dreams, achieve those goals and stand tall through adversity.
Fear of failure keeps us in our safe comfort zones where we are stuck and frustrated and unmotivated.

Get out there! Fail! Live your life without fear because every time that you do, a seed is planted that is going to help you grow into something magnificent.