How I Deal With Failure

ometimes we know we're down the road to failure and don’t care, figuring we’ll deal with the consequences later when we get there.

Then there are those times you work so hard to achieve something and the result still ends in what seems to be a major failure. You failed to meet the bottom line by a certain deadline, you told your wife you loved her in the morning and hurt her by the afternoon, you finished reading a good parenting book this week but on Wednesday you still yelled at your kids when all they wanted to do was play and be with you. And here’s one that always gets me (and the reason I hate math)…you study your butt off for a test and still fail it!

Mistakes are always 20/20 in hindsight. And we can certainly learn from them. Our failures can become opportunities if we let them. But that's going to take gumption on our part.

Here are some tips I’m going to share with you on how I’m currently trying to let my recent trip down Fail Road become a positive opportunity instead of a regret to wallow in:

1. Humble Yourself

Who likes arrogant people anyway? If you can be honest with yourself and those around affected by your recent failure, you open your eyes to the learning experience of it. Yea, you failed. But you don’t have to fail again. And now you have something to teach others, as well as simply accept that you are human and imperfect. Everyone has experienced failure at some point in their lives and humbling yourself allows you to relate to others who have been through the same or are going to go through it.

2. Seize the Opportunity

You’re not planning to fail constantly throughout your life. In the midst of your failure your mind is fresh on where you went wrong and where you can go right moving forward. Document this experience, talk about it with others. Take a breather and think outside the box. Make a vow to change, start over, do something different and brand new. Discover something about yourself you may not have realized before. Behind every failure there is opportunity lurking.

3. Become a Better Person

Everyone needs room for improvement. Let your recent failure be a catalyst for change and growth. Think about the things in life you do well and can be thankful for. Maybe there are some great things about you already that you’ve not been giving yourself enough credit for. Improve upon those things. Share them with others. Bless the world more with what you have. Just because you failed once doesn’t mean you’re horrible at everything. It doesn’t mean you’re becoming worse. Life happens, pull up your britches and move on to the next best thing.