In this article, we talk about 5 simple ways that all of us can implement right away in order to overcome failure in life.

Failure is inevitable. It comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. The truth is, all of us tend to cross paths with it at some point or the other in life, be it in relationships, or at work, or in our careers at large. And the aftermath of each setback that we encounter can be devastating if not handled properly. Sometimes it can even lead to extreme depression or a sudden nervous breakdown. But this is not to say that failure cannot be tackled and conquered by ordinary yet highly effective methodologies.

The most important tactic when striving to overcome failure in life is to begin with developing a positive mindset. Every other strategy, every other game plan can be brought to fruition, but you need to build an optimistic outlook for yourself before you start working on converting your failure to success. And we’re going to help you achieve just that. With this, let us dive straight into the required methodologies.

There’s no such thing as failure

You heard us. There’s no such thing as failure. It’s just experience which further transforms into age-old wisdom with time. Think about it. How else would we learn any of the more significant lessons offered by the universe?

Children, as a matter of fact, are extremely good at overcoming failure in life. No matter what it takes to succeed, children almost always find a way around the obstacles that they face. And this actually comes naturally to them. From learning to walk, speak and paint, to becoming masters at persuading adults into giving them what they want, children just don’t take no for an answer. They try one thing, and if it doesn’t work, they change their approach. And they do this on repeat till they succeed.

The good news is that we were all children once. We have all been there, we have all done that. So it should not be as difficult as it sounds to once again subscribe to this notion that there is in fact no such thing as failure. Remember the time when you were learning to ride a bike? You had to fall and fall and fall before you finally became skilled at it. You never caved in, and you never buckled irrespective of the intensity of pressure that you were subjected to.

There are numerous examples that we can quote to make you understand the importance of failure in life. Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Wright brothers, J. K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, and Jack Ma are just some of the many success stories who failed miserably in their early years. And if you asked any of them what it felt like in the moment, they would probably tell you that it felt horrible and excruciatingly hurtful. But if you asked if they would rather they did not have to go through all that pain and suffering , they would unquestionably tell you that they’re grateful for the lessons they learnt because their failures are what led them to their success.

If you really wish to overcome failure in life, this is the first and the most crucial step to take. Eliminate the word failure from your dictionary, and start paying attention to the valuable teachings that it brings to you. Stop thinking of failure in the literal sense of the word, and start perceiving it as an opportunity to learn something new.

Embrace your overwhelming emotions

It is natural to feel sad, demotivated and depressed when bogged down by unexpected setbacks. There is no magic in this world that can help you get rid of these so-called overwhelming emotions. In fact, if you somehow do manage to not feel this way, you will only end up causing more troubles for yourself. Why is that? Emotions like anger, anxiety, frustration, sorrow, etc. force your body to assume an uncomfortable state of being. This leads to an urgent need to get out of that situation and serves as a strong source of motivation.

There have been several scientific studies which support the idea that pain and suffering are just as paramount as happiness and a sense of satisfaction for healthy living. When we say pain, we mean physical, mental as well as emotional. Imagine a situation wherein you get hurt. There is severe internal bleeding, and you require immediate medical assistance. There’s just one problem. You don’t feel physical pain. The condition is called ‘congenital insensitivity to pain’ but that’s not important. The important point is this: no matter the severity of your injury, if you don’t get to know about its existence, you will never be able to heal the same. So the kind of damage that absence of pain has the potential to lead to can very well be catastrophic.

A good call here would be to make peace with your negative emotions. If you try to suppress them, they will resurface in other forms and with dire consequences. You cannot avoid them. You cannot do away with them. Some of us turn to sources of immediate relief and gratification, for ex. liquor, tobacco, gambling, etc., but that does not bode well in the longer run. So you’re pretty much left with just one card to play with.

The sad truth about conventional societal upbringing is that since childhood we’re all taught to avoid indulging in negative emotions. In extreme situations, we’re chastised and punished even. This is completely unhealthy as well as unnecessary. We understand that it might take an unusual amount of effort to consciously look on the brighter side of things when the situation will feel no less than torture and hell. However, we urge you to consider the possibilities that this one simple practice can open for you. Learning to regulate your negative emotions in a direction that can yield positive results for you can prove to be an extensively powerful tool for overcoming failure in life.

All in all, bottom line is that our feelings, no matter how painful, are here to stay. You can either choose to use them strategically to your advantage, or you can let them take over your sense of judgement and clarity, thereby allowing for a string of bad decisions and choices.

Take an analytical approach

Now that we’ve established that failure is good and negative emotions are helpful, let’s move on to the next stage. This step involves a thorough analysis of everything that went wrong in your previous attempt at whatever it is that you were trying to achieve. Naturally, it is an important step because none of us really wish to make the same mistake over and over again. Which is why it becomes crucial to take this very seriously.

If you don’t dedicate time and effort towards introspecting on the cause of your failure, and continue to focus on the failure itself, you are bound to spiral into an endless loop of setbacks and depression. Einstein once noted “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. Read that again.

After you’ve successfully found the major reasons that led to your failure, you can then start working on creating a different approach for yourself. Maybe it was the way you communicated your side of the story to the concerned personnel. Maybe you missed something during your initial research on the matter. Maybe your strategy lacked a little something here and there. Or maybe you went all in but at the wrong time. The important thing is that now you know. And this gives you unprecedented control over the situation. You’ve once again assumed the role of the man-in-charge instead of the victim.

Let us now talk about the technical aspect of this methodology. There are 3 simple steps to follow: data collection, data analysis, and corrective action.

Data Collection

Data collection refers to the gathering of information that can directly or indirectly help you reflect upon where it is that you went wrong. For ex. You’ve been trying to apply for new job roles in your field of work. However, the situation has not been panning out according to what you had in mind. You haven’t received any solid leads. And time is running out for you because you don’t wish to continue with the same job anymore. What do you do? You can either choose to get depressed over the results you haven’t achieved, or you can focus on analyzing your mistakes, and then change your approach at the earliest.

So you begin with the data collection process. You compile data on all the companies that you’ve already applied to. You collect information on how you’ve been portraying yourself in the form of your resume, your profile, your job description, etc. You also collect information on how you’ve been communicating with the firms of your interest via mails, texts, videos, etc.

Data Analysis

Data analysis involves a thorough study of the data you’ve gathered with the intention of deriving workable facts and figures from the same. Continuing with the new job role example, after collecting the related data, the next step would be to analyze and pick out any perceivable anomalies. Anomalies in this case being any shortcomings in terms of quality of presentation and communication, or a repetitive mistake you might be making in your approach, or the absence of a useful resource, for ex. a letter of recommendation.

Data analysis consists of two subdivisions: what has been done, and what can be done. We’ve already spoken about analysing what has been done. Now, let’s discuss about what can be done to achieve the results that you desire. This majorly involves enlisting everything that has the potential to help you improve the quality of your approach. When working on this sub-step, ask yourself questions like-

1. Is there any other resource that you can add in order to reach your goal rapidly and properly?
2. Do you need to equip yourself with a skill you’ve been lacking previously?
3. Do you need to get rid of a habit that has been dragging you down all along?
4. If you fail yet again, what will be your contingency?

So on and so forth. This will give you a much better clarity on your future course of action and prepare you for the upcoming challenge.

Corrective Action

This is simple. You’ve determined everything you need to do to convert your failure into great success. Now all that remains is to go out and actually implement it all. While working on this step, remember to stay patient and hopeful. There is a pretty good chance that things may not go as planned. You may have to improvise as you go. You may even have to face some unforeseen challenges too. Staying focused on your journey is key here. This entire world is one big game. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But you keep moving forward nevertheless.

Keep your mental health in check

Keeping your mental health in check is an absolute must if you really wish to overcome failure in life. It not only provides you with the mental capacity to endure significant setbacks efficiently, but also allows for a clear and progressive thought process. This further enables you to grab rare opportunities in difficult times as soon as they come your way. There are numerous techniques that you can apply to maintain as well as improve your mental health and well being.

Take care of your physical body

This includes eating well, consuming plenty of water, exercising regularly, avoiding smoking and excessive drinking, and getting sufficient rest. Maintaining good physical health will inevitably lead you to improving and sustaining good mental health in the longer run. When working towards overcoming failure in life, you may have to put in significant amounts of physical effort as well so as to go the extra mile. For this reason, ensuring a healthy body becomes truly indispensable.

Meditation & Mindfulness

The benefits of meditating frequently are virtually unlimited. The kind of soothing and calming effect that meditating for a bare minimum of 10 minutes can have on our state of mind can not be attained by any other activity. Sitting quietly with our eyes closed and intuition open can enable us to gain a completely different and empowering perspective on any given problem that we might be struggling with. It can also help increase creativity, patience, self-awareness, and can allow us to become better managers of stress and anxiety. All in all, practicing meditation can almost miraculously improve our mental health and also supply us with the wisdom to deal with everyday challenges in a much more efficient manner.

Meditation can prove to be a great tool in your quest to overcome failure in life. If you wish to get better insight on this topic, read our publication titled “5 Easy Meditation Techniques For Beginners“.

Study Psychology

The power that we gain from knowledge is truly remarkable. Simply reading about a subject can give us such great insight on the matter, so much so that it can bring about a massive paradigm shift in our perspective. Which is why we recommend studying the basics of psychology at least. There are so many things that we don’t know about ourselves, like the effect that childhood trauma can have on our current sense of judgement and acquired instincts.

Avoid self-criticism

Self-criticism is one of the worst symptoms of self-hatred that one can develop with time. People don’t understand that the words they tell themselves form perhaps the most effective and impactful set of suggestions that they’ll ever receive from anyone.

Take a break

It’s important to give yourself some leisure time every once in a while. Rome wasn’t built overnight. It not only took years of perseverance, commitment and dedication, but also, patience and careful planning. Knowing when to go all in is just as important as gauging when to hold back and let your pieces fall in place all by themselves. And the most crucial part would be to create a sustainable ecosystem for yourself so that you can commit to something larger over an extended period of time. Bottom line is, it’s imperative to find your balance.

Know thyself

Many of us often end up setting unrealistic goals for ourselves. And when we fail to accomplish them, we become frustrated and demotivated. It’s paramount to be aware of our abilities as well as our limitations. Overestimating how much we can achieve in our existing capacity can chronically harm our mental health because when the actual reality hits us, we are almost never prepared to accept it. Getting to know about your intrinsic restrictions is imperative when striving to overcome failure in life.

Synergic Companionship

Mankind is a social animal and requires regular meaningful interaction with other human beings. We all require good emotional and mental support, be it from our families or our friends. The happiness and the feeling of nostalgia that is brought by meeting a familiar face after a long time is truly delightful. The heavy burden which is lifted off our shoulders by talking about our problems with someone who understands and cares for us can be unfathomably elevating. They may not be able to provide us with effective solutions, but simply knowing that someone is there for us in our times of need has a peculiarly strengthening effect on our state of mind.

Developing synergic companionship can help you deal with failure much more easily and conveniently as compared to when fighting a one-man-battle.

Choose your suffering (Willingness)

Willingness allows you to channel your stress and anxiety in a direction that’s constructive and not destructive. It is a skill that grants its practitioner dominance and control over his or her state of mind. In this, the practitioner recognizes the fact that stress and anxiety are nothing more than indicators that a particular situation feels uncomfortable and he or she needs to do something to get out of it. Once the practitioner gains clarity of thought, it enables him or her to look at the situation objectively and decide upon a plan of action accordingly. Instead of feeling like the victim, one begins to feel like the commander-in-chief for solving the problem at hand. Willingness is a simple yet powerful tool to master, and can be learned with little but consistent practice.

Find your purpose in life

Life is too short to be wasted away in doing things we don’t feel inspired to do. One of the major consequences of leading a life wrapped around chores we dislike is poor mental health. The sheer lack of ambition and initiative coupled with a constant sense of worthlessness imparts an enormous amount of burden on our already weakened shoulders. It sucks the life out of our souls, and we end up living in a never ending cycle of eat, sleep, suffer, repeat.

Seek professional help

If none of the above points work for you, you can always find masters of the art who’ll be more than willing to help you. Many a time, we fail to recognize the actual cause behind our stress and anxiety. We tend to focus on the symptoms instead of the underlying problem and direct our efforts towards treating the symptoms instead of solving the problem. This is where professional psychologists come in. They see what we fail to see and tend to work with a target-specific approach.

The above mentioned techniques will unquestionably take you a long way in your quest to overcome failure in life. If you’re interested in reading more about these in detail, check out our publication titled “Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Mental Health“.

Develop an objective outlook towards life

Objective outlook indicates a mindset devoid of cognitive and emotional biases that many a time tend to cloud our sense of rationale and good judgement. It is the exact opposite of harbouring subjective opinions. When it comes to incorporating a favourable decision making process which can help us gain long term success and overcome failure in life, maintaining an objective outlook can prove to be exceedingly useful. But before we talk about the importance of cultivating objectivity, let us first understand how unchecked subjectivity hinders our growth and progress.

It’s possible that you’ve been making decisions under the influence of emotional sways or unhelpful instincts which directly or indirectly have been worsening your already difficult situation. Your subjective outlook could very well be the reason behind your delayed success. Often, people tend to ignore personal biases and prejudices when it comes to making life-altering decisions. You may think you made the right choice initially, but had you taken an objective glance at the situation, you would have easily found a huge blunder of a mistake hiding behind an ocean of biased reasoning.

Subjectivity prevents us from effectively differentiating between facts and fiction. It can sometimes make us act unfair not just with others but with our own selves too. A subjective mindset hides a major portion of the truth from us, and forces us to lead our movements based on incomplete knowledge of the situation. And what happens when one acts without understanding the full picture? He falters.

Objectivity, on the other hand, empowers us to make an informed decision after carefully studying all accessible facts and figures. This becomes especially essential while taking an analytical approach to overcome failure in life. When we give a fairly good amount of thought to any situation at hand, and try to anticipate the consequences from all angles before taking a blind leap, we inevitably avoid making big mistakes. And when we don’t make big mistakes, we automatically do away with any unnecessary failures and regrets. One of the greatest benefits of developing an objective outlook is that it brings us closer to the truth. It helps minimize error, eliminate misinterpretation and misrepresentation, and grants maximum possible control over unforeseen circumstances.

The first step towards developing an objective mindset is to acknowledge the existence of your prejudices and presuppositions, followed by their identification and rectification. The second step is the creation of a pros and cons list describing the various advantages and disadvantages of all available courses of action. The third step is the narrowing down of options to the most suitable ones only. The fourth step is taking a well-informed decision on the matter, and seeing it through the finish line. Bonus tip: Creating a scoring system can prove to be of great help! The fifth and the final step is to repeat this procedure over and over again till you hammer it down into your conventional way of thinking.

Now that we’ve highlighted the advantages of objectivity over subjectivity, it only makes sense that you switch to the former and ditch the latter as soon as possible. At the same time, this is not to say that subjectivity is all bad and has no perks whatsoever. It just doesn’t seem to put us in an advantageous position when it comes to making substantial decisions in life.

Conclusion

It is no secret that in life, if we wish to become successful, we will have to overcome failure after failure after failure. In this pursuit of victory and triumph, it then becomes a matter of great urgency that we not only bring about a massive shift in our outlook towards failure while learning to make peace with our negative emotions, but also keep our mental health in check and maintain an objective outlook towards life.

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Resources

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