How to Convert Failure into Success

“Life is a process of becoming. A combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” ~Anais Nin

Here’s what I discovered. Failure is a step toward your ultimate success.  It’s a lesson.  A challenge. A chance

The enemy of success is fear of failure. It's not failure itself that's so dangerous--it's the fear of failure that keeps us doing nothing. Like all fears, you conquer it by facing it down. And when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it wrong, that is when your true work begins.

It's far better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly. The only true failure is doing nothing--inaction puts everything at risk. When we do nothing, it means we are not moving anywhere. And that is a surefire way to stay in failure. All that is required for failure to triumph is for us to do nothing.

Reframe. Try to look at the situation from different angles. You might ask your friends or family members to give you their honest feedback. Don’t just look for the type of support that will feed your ego; seek out perspectives from people who may not have been supportive during the process. The important part of this step is to listen, take in the information, and then synthesize everything you know of your failure into a complete picture of what happened and why. Try not to react emotionally to anything you discover or that people express to you.

Revise. While you’re gaining a new perspective, be open to ideas for moving forward. People might offer them without you asking. Be prepared for that. Allow them to speak, thank them for their feedback, and move on. When you feel like you have enough ideas to form a new plan of action, write them out on paper. You may have to detach a little bit and pretend you’re looking at someone else’s situation, especially when people are offering varied suggestions. For me, the word revise is a nice way to give myself permission to let go of this failure or path completely.  Be willing to step back from anything that isn’t working in your life.

Refocus. Once you have a new plan or at least an idea of how you want to proceed, the most crucial thing you can do to overcome feeling like a failure is to embrace your new path and focus. As hard as it may be, you can’t spend any more time second guessing yourself or replaying the pity party of why it didn’t work “the other way.”

We are products of our past, but we don't have to let our mistakes define us. Even if the past did not go as we had hoped, our future can still be better than we can envision. Too often, we're afraid to talk about our past and our failures out of fear that they'll define us. Let it out, but stay focused on what's ahead.

Consistency is key to success. Consistent action creates consistent results. Strength doesn't come from what you can do, it comes from mastering the things you once thought you couldn't do. So let yourself fall down, but learn to dust yourself off and get up and move forward. What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while.