Let’s face it: no one likes to lose and no one likes to fail! Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a talented athlete or a newly promoted manager, you will face tough times in your career where you don’t get that win. But both losing and failing are important parts of life. They make you self-reliant. They give you an opportunity to learn valuable lessons and make your success long lasting and more powerful. You learn to take responsibility for your actions and build confidence. Losing and failing teach you humility (it keeps you grounded) and, most importantly, it builds character, one that fosters determination where you can overcome just about any challenge that life throws your way.
Learning to fail better takes heart and patience. The key is to be open to trying new things and taking different approaches until you find something that works. The more you experiment, the more mistakes you will be prone to making, but that’s alright. Taking these risks is what is going to gear you to make better decisions and point you in the right direction. You want to make sure that every failure is beneficial or useful to your development.
Here are five tips on how to fail like a pro:
Stay true to your values
Failing is the time when real leaders reveal their character. Winning without honor is worse than taking an ”L” anyday. Show some grace and self-control. Stay positive, hold your head up high, and remain calm and level-headed. Tomorrow is another day.
Be brave and honest
Failing better means you have to be honest about it. Own up to your mistakes. They’re going to happen, so don’t be ashamed or try to cover them up. When you do that, you take away the opportunity to learn from them. That in itself takes courage, so be brave.
Conquer the Self-Doubt
When we experience failure, we feel alone and dejected. Our failures linger in our minds, haunting our thoughts and decisions, leading to anxiety and self-doubt. But when other people are forthcoming about their setbacks, we become less fearful of failure, more inspired to take a chance, and not afraid of challenges. We’re also less likely to attribute our failures to our own shortcomings, rather than blame it on things we can’t control.
If you could read between the lines of all those resumes and LinkedIn profiles, you’d see the job applications that were passed over, the proposals that were rejected, and the presentations that flopped. Most people will tell you before achieving that success, they failed at a lot of things but nobody really knows unless you’re sharing it. This leads into my next point…
Talk about the failed attempts
As mentioned in the previous point, this failure should be taken as a learning opportunity. So analyze and determine what happened. You might reach out to your team, your business partner, even your classmate that you worked on that project with. Communication is going to help make this failure easier to stomach. Not only that, being open can create a safe space and forum to discuss with others that may be dealing with the same things you are.
Be resilient, don’t give up (can’t fail if you don’t quit)
Lastly, I can’t emphasize more how important it is to not give up! Don’t let failure slow you down. Show some grit and determination. One failed attempt doesn’t make you a failure. The faster you fail and learn from the mistakes, the faster you’ll find the solutions you’re looking for. It takes some time, and a deal of analysis to really comprehend what isn’t working. But it’s all part of the process of growing professionally.
The thing is, you have to know that before you succeed there will be times where you fail. This is where true character is shown; when you pick yourself up and don’t give up. Take those risks, learn from the mistakes, and grow as a person. If it’s something you really want, trust me when I say, it’ll all be worth it in the end. Success is attainable, so don’t give up. Stay hungry and focused!
Bounce Back!
If you want to learn how to fail like a pro and still bounce back, join us for our free event Wednesday November 18 where industry giants Odile Roujol (FAB Fashion and Beauty Tech), Billy Dec (COACT), and Glen Lundy (#RiseAndGrind) will share their failures and hard-learned lessons. Click here to learn more and register.
Have any more tips on how to fail like a pro? Let us know down in the comments.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
