Shannon Rey Gibbs For some reason failure has become a very big deal for us. We try to avoid it at all costs and become fearful of trying something new or putting ourselves out there where others may judge us. I still experience this myself but I’ve learned to keep doing the things that scare me anyway. If you ask anyone who’s successful in creating a business, product, or following; they’ll tell you that they’ve failed many times along the way and continue to fail even now. It took James Dyson over 5,000 tries before perfecting his now famous vacuum. Wow! So I am hear to tell you a little something about failure that will help you better deal with it!

Every failure is an opportunity to learn

You can learn a lot from failure. You learn how to do it better next time. You understand what was missing from that first try at something. You learn the reason for your failure, which may pleasantly surprise you—perhaps it was because it wasn’t something you wanted to do anyway and your heart just wasn’t in it. I’m personally grateful for these kinds of failures!

Each time you fail, you’ll realize that you survived it and you have a chance to start again. You can become stronger by looking back, making note of what you learned, and moving forward with the benefit of more experience. Developing this kind of resiliency with help you to bounce back stronger each time.

This is a great reminder:  “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford

Give yourself permission to have small failures along the way

When you are feeling really stuck or just can’t seem to move forward at all after a failure, break the process down into smaller steps. What’s the next one thing that you need to do? Start there. And then figure out the next step. And keep going.

It takes some of the pressure off when you realize that yes, there’s a chance you may fail, however it may only be with one small step out of ten steps. When something doesn’t turn out the way you hoped it would, it just becomes information about what the next step needs to be. After all, maybe you were off track and needed to be headed in a different direction to get you on the right path!

Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back

You can have so many great experiences when you decide to be afraid and do it anyway. Instead of asking “what if I fail?” how about asking “what if I don’t fail?” Imagine the possibilities that are ahead just because you took a leap of faith.

I like this quote from Virgin Group’s founder, Richard Branson, “do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”

There’s always something to learn from failures and it’s the courage to continue moving forward that counts.

Want to read another interesting take on dealing with failure? Read this blog post. For more interesting blog posts on life, school and career, visit the official GT20 blog!

Shannon empowers professionals to discover what they truly want in their careers so they can do fulfilling work on their own terms. www.shannon-rey.com