One of the biggest obstacles to living the life of our dreams is the fear of failure. Most of the time, the reason we don’t always go after what we want is that we think we are going to fail. We don’t want to look like a fool, and we certainly don’t want to feel like one.

But we’d like you to embrace failure. We know, it’s hard! But embracing failure helps you to learn and grow stronger and living your life unafraid of failure is also incredibly freeing. Yes, failing can be super scary but the more you practise failing, the less scary it becomes. And if you keep trying, chances are, soon you’ll become successful at what you initially failed at!

And it’s much better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all!

When you reframe your definition of failure, you can take risks even if it means you’ll fail or be rejected, because you’ll understand the value in it.

So let’s take a look at redefining the definition of failure.

Redefining failure

To redefine the term failure let’s first see what the dictionary says.

The Cambridge Dictionary states these definitions for failure:

Failure:

The fact of someone or something not succeeding.

The fact of not doing something that you must do or are expected to do.

The fact of something not working, or stopping working as well as it should.

By these definitions, surely we experience failure almost every day? How often do you forget where you placed your keys? Forget to call a friend back? Break a glass? Misspell a word? All of us fail. It’s a normal part of life. We just need to reframe it as something more positive.

So we’d like to offer you a reframing of the definition of failure. You can either use our version or make up your own.

Failure: An opportunity to learn and grow from an unwanted outcome so that I may become stronger, more confident and do better in the future. To fail is to begin the process of succeeding.

Doesn’t this definition sound better? Less daunting? Doesn’t it make you kind of excited about failing?

It’s all about how you choose to perceive the idea of failure. Is losing your job the end of your career or just the beginning? If you give up every time you fail at something, you stop yourself from experiencing amazing success. Remember, success is on the other side of failure.

As Albert Einstein said, “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never tried anything new.” And we know what you’re thinking, “well it’s OK for him, he was a genius.” But did you know that he actually failed at many things before he discovered his groundbreaking theories? Einstein, in fact, couldn’t speak until he was four years old and was told by his teachers that “he would never amount to much.”

And you know what the best thing is about this story? Einstein is just one of many successful people who began their career with plenty of failures.

So, let’s take a look at some famous failures.

Famous failures in history

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He was so upset he locked himself in his room and cried.
Abraham Lincoln failed in business and politics, lost his job and had a nervous breakdown before he became president.
The Beatles were turned down by a well-known record company and told that they had “no future in show business.”
Steve Jobs got fired from his own company and went on to create Pixar and invent some of the greatest technologies we've seen today.

J.K Rowling was turned down by publishers twelve times before one agreed to publish Harry Potter.
Walt Disney was turned down 302 times for funding his vision and went bankrupt before eventually getting funding for Disneyland. He was also fired from a newspaper for lacking imagination and having “no original ideas.”

Oprah Winfrey was demoted from her job as a news anchor because she was “unfit for television.”

Steven Spielberg was a daydreamer and suffered from dyslexia. He was turned down by two major film schools because of his poor grades.
Thomas Edison was told by his teacher that he was “too stupid to learn anything” and failed over 10,000 times before inventing the electric lightbulb.

The difference between these people and most of the world is that they never ever gave up. They kept going and they believed in themselves even when others didn’t.

We know this doesn’t take away the horrible feeling of failure. Let’s face it, failure sucks! But just remind yourself that there is a lesson to be learned and to keep looking forward. And remember, success wouldn’t feel half as good if we didn’t experience the failures beforehand. As Truman Capote said, “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour.”

Final thoughts

The key to failure is using it as an opportunity for growth. When something doesn’t go according to plan, it can help to reflect on what happened so you can learn for next time. Review what happened and why, create a new strategy, and prepare to fail again in a different way.

Just whatever you do, don't stop trying.

How can I be okay with failure?

You sometimes learn more from it than you do from success. Unii explains.