COMFORTABLE WITH FAILURE

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill

Success is something that everyone strives for, but not many attain.

Why?

Because the knockbacks of failure make us give up instead of keep going. The main difference between top performers and underachievers is that the top performers can fail and keep going as if nothing happened.

Failing
Failing is a part of life, so why not get comfortable doing it? In the words of Brian Tracy, “every single successful person in life is a professional failure.”

The only difference between them and you is that they are not afraid of failing and actually embrace it. Because no longer worrying about something that is inevitable will free up your time to make things happen.

If you can consistently fail and learn something from it, you will be able to accelerate your success in business and life seriously.

Fail Hard And Fail Often
The more you fail, the easier it gets to fail.

The fear of failure is the single biggest dream killer out there. As Margie Warrell, Author of Make Your Mark says, “We fail far more from timidity than we ever do from over-daring.”

This perfectly encapsulates how we act when it comes to goals and dreams.

We know we will fail many times and that failure will slowly drain our willpower. The problem then arises that we become so afraid of failure that we never even try anything, flushing any hope of achieving goals straight down the toilet.

What we need to be doing is instead embracing failure.

When we fail, sure, it hurts, but the pain will heal. So, by failing often, you are conditioning yourself to be okay with the failure. Not only this, but try to fail hard.

And don’t condition yourself by doing small failures. Instead, go big and seriously give something a good crack. Only then will you really know if something works or not.

Find The Learning
Every time you fail, there is a reason. This means by failing often, you will be learning new and important things about yourself or your business. Of course, finding the learning in each failure isn’t always an easy task.

But, when you do finally start looking for the teaching in every failure, this is some of the best education you can get. It will allow you to try new things without worrying about failing.

Teach Others
The best part about learning from your failures is correcting yourself from making mistakes again. Why should other people go through the same failures as you to reach the same conclusion? This is essentially what mentorship is. One person will guide someone else down a similar path as them, except the mentee will be able to foresee and sidestep many of the mentor’s failures.

Fail Often
Failures are rungs on the ladder of success. Without climbing up past all the failures, there’s almost no way you will ever be able to reach success.

The only problem is people’s perceptions of failure. If we all looked at failure more positively, we would see that it allows us to learn and try again.

The Bible
To fail from time to time is only human, but to be a “failure” is when we are defeated by failure, refusing to rise and try again.

Job 14:1 says, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

Life is full of trouble, even for those who belong to God through faith in Christ. We are to expect it. This means God does not promise a life without problems, sorrow, and, yes, failure just because we believe in Him.

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

God has marked out a course for each of us, which sometimes includes failure. But when we cling to the Savior, even our failures can be turned into successes by the One who controls all things and strengthens us in our weaknesses.

One of the trademarks of successful business leaders and entrepreneurs is their lack of fear of failure. Their success is rooted in the lessons learned from failure – both theirs and the ones who mentored them.

Think and pray
Shake off the fear of failure and be an ultimate success. That is what God has intended for you.

Father, help me to persevere in the knowledge that You are teaching, strengthening and positioning me to help others see Your redemption, Your purpose and Your faithfulness. Let me not lose confidence in doing good, knowing that at the proper time I will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Philip W. Struble is the President of Landplan Engineering and is passionate about helping business leaders steward their companies in a way that honors God. He is the author of Zebedee and Sons Fishing Co.: Business Advice from the Bible and hosts a weekly blog atwww.zebedeeandsonsfishingco.com. Philip and his wife, Stephanie, have four adult children and currently reside on a small farm in rural Douglas County, Kansas.