Think Differently About Failure

by | Mar 9, 2021

I don’t just tell people to dream, I tell people to dream bigger. So whatever dreams or goals you have, I really do encourage you to expand them and dream big dreams, even bigger than you originally dreamt.

You know, it was Michelangelo who said “Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, no, most people fail in life because they aim to low and hit.” So it is important that we do dream big. I love the saying, ‘Shoot for the moon because even if you miss you land up amongst the stars’. So think about a big goal and you make it bigger. If it’s bigger, even if you do miss it, at least you’re going to be way ahead of where you originally wanted to go.

So here are three tips on how a person can be successful in life with big dreams. The requirement is you need to think differently and think differently when it comes to failure. The first one is, ‘Don’t ever personalise failure’. The second one is, see failure as part of the process to be successful. And lastly, remember that failure is always temporary.

So looking at the first one, don’t internalise it; personalise it. When something goes wrong, Just say, “Aah, I missed that one, or I made a mistake, so, what can I learn from it?” Never use the words ‘I’m a failure’ or even think that. Always have the overriding thought in your mind, that is, ‘I am successful, I am successful, I am a success’. Repeat it over and over and feel like you are a success. When things go wrong, recognise that didn’t work out and say, “I can learn from it and get better.”

The second one is knowing that failure is part of the success journey. It is John Maxwell who says, ‘We literally fail our way to success.” Think about all the people throughout history who have achieved great things and have had so many failures and obstacles along the way, and it makes sense. If you go for a walk in the park, probably nothing much is going to be much of a challenge there, but try and climb Mount Everest – a big goal like that – there are so many obstacles and so many things to overcome. So when you dream big, prepare your mind that you are going to be successful, you are going to go for bigger things with confidence, knowing there are going to be a lot of mistakes and failures along the way, but they are part of the success journey.

Lastly, always remember that failure is temporary; it’s never permanent. Think about your own life and any time that something went wrong. Failure never lasts. It’s temporary. So when we experience it (I know this will sound like a big ask), but embrace it and ask yourself, ‘What can I learn from this situation? How can I improve from the learning of it, make changes in my life, get better, do better next time?’ We must take the learnings out of it. So with that, knowing that it’s temporary, it’s not going to last forever, get the most of the experience. If I think about my own life, I have learnt so much from my failures and, to be honest, I have learnt a lot less from my successes. So those are my three tips for you. Have a wonderful day, and God bless.

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