Why Failure is Necessary

Many of us are afraid of failure. Why is this so? Maybe this stems from our schooling or our upbringing. From a young age we have been taught that failure is unacceptable. If we did not do well on a test in school, we were looked down upon. If we did not know the answer in class, or if we got the wrong answer in class, we were laughed at or made to feel embarrassed. Kids in school who get the best grades and make the least mistakes are praised by teachers, parents, and society; they are expected to excel in life, while C students are expected to live a life of mediocrity. In our school systems and in our society, failure is not accepted.

This mindset is a dream killer. If you long to start your own business or to try something different today with this mentality, you will not reach your goals. Instead of viewing failure as negative, you should view failure as positive and necessary. You should not be afraid to fail because it is impossible to be successful without failing. In fact, failure is the key to success.

I get it though. It is scary to put yourself out there to potentially fail in front of a lot of people or even just in front of yourself. A lot of people are handicapped by fear, but we cannot let failure cripple us. The reality is if we don’t fail then we don’t succeed! So many people don’t act because they are scared. But an essential component of becoming successful in all that we do is by operating outside of our comfort zones. All successful people operate out of their comfort zones. They act in spite of their fears.

Failure is making progress towards your dreams. We learn from failure. Failure teaches us lessons that we need in order to excel. The important part is to not let failure keep us down; we need to get back up and bounce back!! Even more so, failure equals progress because action is being taken. If you let fear stop you, then no action is being taken, making it impossible to move towards success.

So the next question is… “How do I cope with the fear of failure?”

Well, as my mentors have always explained to me, if you can change your mind, you can change your world. A lot of people fear failure, and thus refuse to act because they are afraid of how it will make them feel. Remember, we as human beings like to do what makes us feel good. So, how can we make ourselves see failure in a more positive light? How can we feel good about failure? We  must shift our paradigms. Instead of thinking of failure in a negative way, we must look at it in a positive light, for failure will bring us closer to achieving our dreams!! More importantly, if we do not want to fail because we don’t want to feel a certain way, what this really is, is us being scared of something that is totally under our control. We control how we think and we control how we feel.

People often beat themselves up when they don’t meet their expectations, but what you should do is treat yourself with love, care and compassion; you should have your own back! So it is up to you whether you respond negatively or positively to failure. You choose how you feel!

Conquer your fears and go out and fail until you succeed!