Life is made of many small events, some of which are the reason for our happiness and satisfaction, while others set us back. Some reward us with what we have been long seeking, while some others lead us to dwell in a never-ending misery when they do not meet our expectations…
Amidst all the pain or happiness, we find ourselves making judgements left and right. We would rather for instance never speak of a failure ever again, while we cannot keep our mouth shut about a success that we want to keep cherishing forever more. The latter becomes our happy place, a place we will always visit whenever strength fails us, to boost our sense of self-satisfaction.
However, one should never give up simply because they failed once, twice, or even thrice… Afterall, what does not kill you makes you stronger. With this being said, one should always deem every failure as just another step toward developing a positive mindset, ultimately leading us to the objective we wanted to achieve, the destination we were attempting to reach, the life we were seeking to live.
In other words, our failures should not be deemed as defeat, nor shall they be cause for our frustration. Rather, they shall represent an experience from which we can draw lessons to later apply in our favor, in our quest toward our long-sought goal.
In fact, every time we fail, we learn something new and we achieve a small success to help us at perfecting our plan for achieving our eventual dream. Afterall, when put together, puzzle pieces form an astonishing picture, no?
The same applies to our failures. Let us deem them small puzzle pieces that we need to put together, one loss after the other, one failure after the other, to make us stronger, to foster our resilience, to teach us how to adapt our steps to ensure our success, and to form the bigger picture: one of achievement, excellent, and brightness.
It is about time you change your mindset and believe that it is okay to fall, for without failure, creativity and innovation would be nothing but repressed talents.
In his book, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, Peter Sims mentions that five elements form the core of the experimentation. These elements are based upon little bets made towards reaching the breakthrough idea and projects. These include:
1. Experimentation: It is only through various trials and experimentations that we are able to create prototypes to accurately translate our perception into creative ideas.
2. Improvisation: Ideas are often created in a free environment, where restrictions and prejudice do not exist.
3. Observation: Close observation helps us reflect upon a multitude of human experiences and understand their underlying stories.
4. Needs and problems identification: This is possible by employing insights in favor of identifying needs and problems prior to addressing them.
5. Redirection: Thanks to one small step at a time, we can adapt our plan and take the necessary action towards achieving our goals. Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford University, mentioned, in one of her studies, that people often opt for one of two mindsets when it comes to learning from their failures. Some do not seek change, convinced that human capabilities and intelligence are limited, and tend to be threatened by failure. They often find their value or identity compromised, which leads them to further pursue what validates their success. On another hand, there are those who believe that mental capabilities are flexible, and that they can always develop them as long as they have the will to grow.
Bearing this in mind, never let your failures let you down. Think of them as a supporting tool for getting back up. And always remember that “Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street”, as Zig Ziglar said.
