5 Amazing Lessons to Learn From Failure

Failure Leads to Success

“Fail” is a four-letter word that leads to fear, self-doubt and shame. In fact, some people fear failure so much that they avoid any opportunity to succeed. However, success doesn’t exist without failure. Failure is more than just a means to an end—it teaches us important lessons too. Here are 5 lessons you learn from failure.

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1. Failure Teaches Us Who Our True Friends Are
When you succeed, everyone you know wants a piece of it. They want to bask in your glory. Unfortunately, those same people scatter when you fail. Why is that? Well, people like to associate themselves with winners, and if you have people like that in your life, they’re your fair-weather friends. They’re not your true friends. Your true friends are the people who maintain their faith, love and support through both the good and the bad times.

2. Failure Makes You Reassess What Success Really Means
We’re always thinking bigger, better and more glamorous—a bigger house, more money and a fancy car. But success isn’t necessarily having more; success is feeling good about what you already have. If you try and fail, it may not be because you didn’t try hard enough. It could be because you didn’t try for the right thing. Use failure to question your current goals and your definition of success. Make sure that any effort you make is worthwhile. Put it towards something you really need (and not just want).

3. Failure is Only Permanent if You Quit
Sometimes changing course makes sense, but that is not the same thing as quitting. Quitting is giving up and giving up ensures that failure is permanent. Think of it this way: A failure is never the final verdict until it is the accepted one.

4. Nobody (But You) is Keeping Track of Your Failures
It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, if you keep getting back up, you’ll eventually succeed. When it comes to success and failure, most of us have the same odds. The biggest difference between success and failure is that the people who succeed aren’t afraid to fail—they keep doing it and they’re probably really good at it. But once they succeed, that’s all anyone else ever focuses on. All anyone really remembers are the high points.

5. Failure is a Red Flag That Can Lead to Change
If you keep doing the same thing over and over again and it’s not working, perhaps you need to make a change. In fact, failure is often a red flag that leads to change. Is it time to do things differently? Whether it’s changing jobs or your approach, something has to be different in order to get what you want. You can make the same mistake 1,000 times, but if you do, you’ll have missed out on the 999 different failures that had lessons to teach you. Never quit, but be sure to learn from your mistakes and make changes when you need to.

A Lesson is a Reward

According to research out of the University of Southern California, the mind has two choices when failure has occurred: 1. It suffers from shame, which is a punishment, and makes a person feel so bad they will never make that mistake again. 2. Or, it looks over the situation, deciphers what went wrong, learns a lesson and makes another attempt to change the outcome, which is a kind of reward. A lesson is a reward, rather than a punishment! Wouldn’t you rather be rewarded for learning? By taking the time to find lessons (rewards) in your failures, you’re putting yourself in a much better position to make a stronger comeback.