5 January 2014

PEOPLE - 10 Important Life Lessons that Failure Teaches


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The toddler trying to match feet with his brothers, the tiny spider crawling up the mighty wall, the obese lady trying to control her diet, the small ant carrying its heavy food, an addict trying to give up his drug and a mediocre child trying to excel in academics-in order to achieve their goals everyone has to surpass failure. Sometimes the destination does not come easily to you. One has to work. Really hard. Whenever we are not able to accomplish a task, or achieve our goals and meet up to our expectations we are in a state of FAILURE. This state has the capability to plunge us into despair and disappointment. Failure is undeterred: the word itself is filled with the underlying connotations of negativity but the act of failing does not have to be. If handled well, failure can do wonders improving lives and ameliorating the person as a whole. Following things are worth learning from a failure:
1. Nothing is permanent: change is only constant
nothing is permanent
Failure tastes really bad when it hits. It is unexpected: creates pain, despair and abominable lull. But time is a great healer. It never remains same. However, difficult it may be, it changes. Failure is not the ultimate end. Past cannot be altered. Let the bygones be bygones. Hence, sitting and brooding on it shall not be fruitful by any means. Past should be left behind there itself because no matter how long you hold on it cannot be altered.
GIVE UP YOUR PAST
2.What people say is their problem
what people say is their problem
Failure has nothing to do with one’s social status. People have a habit of criticizing. They make a mockery of whatever good or bad deeds a person does. But, crowd opinions are fickle. Today if they curse you in your failure they shall celebrate your victory too. History is the testament to the transitory nature of public opinion. Great men like Gandhi, Einstein, and Vivekananda were deserted when they started something new and when they succeeded people wished if they were him. Hence, learn from your critics but do not feed the fire that disturbs you and distracts you from your goal. Public opinion is like commode, has to be flushed out regularly.
FLUSH OUT UNWANTED OPINIONS.
3. Accept your mistakes and blame yourself
550px-Accept-Blame-when-You-Deserve-It-Step-3
It takes lot amount of courage to accept one’s mistake. We often come up with different explanations to save ourselves from bearing the guilt of our failure. We all are Escapists. Pampering our big fat ego is our real concern. This is the sole reason for permanent damage to various companies and even relationships. But if someone is responsible for our failure it is completely, totally and solely us. Rather than playing a blame game if we accept our mistakes with all humility we can rectify them and work towards achieving our goals.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.
4. Overcome procrastination
Overcome procrastination
Beholding oneself responsible for one’s failure intensifies the feeling of guilt and desire to succeed as well. This feeling acts as a catalyst and accelerates progress towards the ultimate destination. Hence all the inaction and delay ceases. It gears up, reenergizes, rejuvenates, recreates and reinvents. We are able to rediscover ourselves. A fat man turns to run faster when chased by a dog similarly once hit by a failure we tend to work faster with much more efficiency and less flaws.
BREAK THE MUNDANE MONOTONY AND ACCELERATE.
5. Take calculated risks
Take calculated risks
A very important thing is to calculate the risks well before you take them. Repeating the same mistakes over and over again does no good. One should not fly blindly in the night and simply hope for the best. A deep statistical analysis of the pros and cons of any action is a must before executing it. This can only fetch desired results. Remember failure is never an option. It happens in case of utter haste and carelessness. Achieving a goal or at least waging a heroic effort requires practice, preparation and some awareness of your skills and talents. Otherwise all the efforts may go in vain.
TAKE RISKS BUT CAREFULLY.
6.Use failure as a weapon
use failure as a weapon
It is easy to get dejected during tough times. But it’s after effects can be manipulated in a very healthy way. Failure should rather intensify our desire to achieve, our desperation to succeed and lust to conquer. There are several people who have used failures as stepping stones to success. One of the iconic faces on television, and one of the most successful women in today’s era Oprah Winfrey faced a tough road to get that position, enduring a rough and abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks being fired from jobs many times because she was considered “unfit for TV”. Hence failure should not be a liability. Skills and strategies must be sharpened on the grindstone of failure.
BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION OF THE BRICKS THROWN AT YOU.
7.Failure helps to overcome fears
failure helps to ovecome fear
Some people fear heights, some deep waters, some fear crowd while others fear failure. Psychologists say, one can overcome one’s phobia by facing it right in face. Hence when you fail you are living your greatest fear. Once you are over it, you become fearless.
Edison while working on one of the greatest inventions of all times which lights up our lives even now failed as many as 1000 times before he actually succeeded. He never called those failures. He called them steps to make a bulb. Hence defeat makes you brave enough to bear it. Without the worry of repercussions and with nothing else to loose in hand we tend to tread well on our way t fail, learn and succeed like never before.
BE FEARLESS.
8. Never say die
never say die
No matter how you performed in the past, how wrong your decision turned out to be and how badly you failed- there is always a scope of improvement. It is never the ultimate end till death. Life provides us various opportunities. One must grab and constantly work to succeed. It does not really matter if you fall. What matters is how quickly you get up, brush up and show up. It is well said that
“Far better is to dare mighty things,
To win the glorious triumphs,
Even though checkered by failure…
Than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
Exert till the last minute because it doesn’t matter how fast you run, what matters is how long you run. There may be many instances to break you down in your journey, what makes you winner is your ability to stand up and run again. Never lose you ways.
YOU ARE NOT A LOOSER UNLESS YOU ACCEPT IT.
9. Taking failure as a positive thing
take failure as a positive thing
Sometimes if you don’t get what you desire, it turns out into a blessing. We always have a choice to look things from different perspectives. Glass may be half full or half empty. One can choose to sit in dark or find your inner light and discover the most power pieces of yourself. Similarly, failure or crisis can be viewed positively as an invitation to learn something new, viewing the shakeup in your outer world as an enlightening opportunity to wake up your inner world.
Failure gives an opportunity to work harder on any goal. And as we know it tastes sweetest when it comes after much of hard work and labor.
CELEBRATE FAILURE: IT IS A BLESSING.
10. We control our destiny
We control our destiny
We are the masters of our fate. The destiny is not pre-decided. Our life heads towards the direction we take it to. One maketh oneself. In order to achieve a control of the happenings in one’s life we must discover ourselves and find out what are we creating moment by moment. What we pursue in present determines our future. Time is a precious gift and should be used as a tool to direct into a meaningful direction and make our living worthwhile.
“You are in charge of your destiny; no one else. They are but an obstacle for better things to come. Keep moving forward and you will get there. Just believe in yourself and say “I can do this, I can do this..” Scream these words loud to yourself and feel the difference”
AMELIORATE.
Failure is the feeling that hurts in the first place but if dealt bravely it does well in long run.


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