Is Failure Necessary for Success?

Posted: September 27, 2013

[caption id="attachment_11576" align="alignright" width="424"]© Maridav - Fotolia.com[/caption]Fear of failure can be the biggest obstacle to success. Very few success stories happen without a few missteps along the way. Embrace your mistakes, learn to look at them as "experience", and keep trying.

Jamie, Author for DumbLittleMan, explains how you can become fearless in the face of failure, and succeed.

Successful People Don't Let Their Fear Of Failure Hold Them Back. Do You?

Every four years we are graced with The Winter Olympics. Do you ever watch the figure skating competitions?

I wanted to avoid watching them for years, as I always felt terrible for the competitors who fell.

The entire world just watched them go from a gold medal to no man’s land on the score card.

But then I’d see the same competitors four years later, trying again. And more often than not, their technique had improved, securing a higher score than ever.

Those people are brave. They got up, brushed themselves off, went back to the drawing board and tried again. They learned from their mistakes and moved on to try again, and succeed.

Keeping your motivation fresh

Success isn’t always immediate. There may be years between today and your idea of success, and it’s tough to hold onto your motivation. It’s hard to keep running when you can’t even see the finish line. You have to remind yourself daily of where you want to be. Have you ever heard of affirmations?

Sometimes people find it comforting to remind themselves every day, what they’re working towards. Whatever helps you find your motivation!

Learning from the past

If you failed to realize your goals in the past, you can resolve to realize them in the future. If you remember where you went wrong, you can apply that knowledge the second time around. Steve Jobs wasn’t an immediate success and yet he kept going back and trying again. At least the second time around, you’ll have a little more know-how and you’ll know what to look for.

I believe it was Edison who said, “I haven't failed 10,000 times, I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work.” That's the right attitude to have.

Read the entire article Successful People Don't let Their Fear of Failure Hold Them Back. Do You? on DumbLittleMan.