My daughter asked me recently if I failed often as a child. My immediate answer was, “Repeatedly, and I continue to face failure regularly as an adult.”   I have never given much thought to failure because to me it is a stepping stone to my next success. 

In fact, I rarely think in terms of failure.  I tend to quickly analyze my mistakes or misfortune and continue trying to reach my goal.  When there are no more opportunities to meet the goal, I rework my goal.  I don’t spend time worrying about my failures, however, I do learn from my errors.

I will never forget when I was in elementary school, a race where we kicked a brown bag filled with air across a finish line.  The race started and I was doing very well until I was approaching the finish line.  The wind changed direction and took my bag back past the start line.  Total failure, right?  I didn’t even think about not winning.  I started again keeping the bag close enough to my feet so that the wind could not take it away.  I won that race because I did not give up and I learned from my first failed attempt at crossing the finish line.

Learning from failure is important and dwelling on failure is dangerous.  There are times when one analyzes errors over and over again in order to perfect a strategy to succeed.  However, under normal circumstances, I don’t believe agonizing over a mistake is healthy.  I quickly assess the situation and decide what I am going to do differently the next time the opportunity arises. 

Sometimes I find that failure is a sign that I am heading down the wrong path or that my timing is off.  I have had several career opportunities dissolve at the last minute.  Instead of calling myself a failure, I had faith that the opportunities were not right for me at that given time.

Failure frustrates me the most when I know that I am capable of reaching the goal, but I am not successful.  Maybe I didn’t put in the required effort, maybe it was about timing or even a simple error that was overlooked.   I never like to fail at something I know I am capable of conquering.  I quickly evaluate what went wrong, address the issue, set a new goal, and move on to my next challenge. 

As I evaluate my mistakes and failures, I normally find that I have grown or gained strength in some area of life.  I may have failed to achieve my goal but gained awareness in an area with more value than the intended goal.  Am I concentrating on my failure or what I have gained throughout the challenge? 

I rarely let failure stay in my thoughts for long.  My perspective is that it did not work out, what is next?  How can I do better next time?  Is there a reason to try again?  I avoid the mindset that failure is bad.  It is another stepping stone on my road to success.

When I find myself caught up in failure I feel my body become stressed.   I quickly pray that I am able to let go of control and move in faith down my intended path.   I take time to make sure I understand what went wrong and what I would do differently if anything.

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