The C.A.T. Principle – Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014 & 2016

© Photo by Shao-chun Wang | Dreamstime.com

Don’t Fear Failure, Let Failure Fear You…

Failure is a topic we prefer to avoid. Attend any cocktail party and you’ll see what I mean. When we hear people talking about their misfortune, whether bankruptcy, job loss or a broken heart, or whatever misdeed befell them, we tend to politely cringe and scurry for the nearest exit. God forbid that failure’s disease locks its tentacles on us!

Natural reaction, listening to hard luck stories does not make for lively conversation, especially at an event typically reserved for upbeat fun-loving conversation dosed with a few well-mixed concoctions. Nonetheless, failure is a topic we can’t, and shouldn’t avoid, for without failure, there can be no success.

“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly,” are the words of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). Wise words, but it’s worthy to note his use of “can” instead of “will.”

Failure can make all things possible, but by no means is it a guarantee that all things possible will be achieved. How failure works for us, or doesn’t work for us, is up to us. It’s dependent upon our view of failure that determines whether its impact will be negative or positive. Do we see it as a permanent event that scars us for life, leaving us bitter, cynical, non-trusting and bearing grudges? Or do we see it as a temporary setback bearing gifts of learning, wisdom, and personal growth taking us one step further along the road towards our long sought goal?

Our perspective is fundamental in the way we frame failure. A flawed one brings much anguish, anxiety and frustration. A healthy one brings acceptance, self-belief and personal growth (see Acceptance, Self-Belief and a Rising Phoenix…). It’s critical we have the self-awareness to decipher our mind when failure strikes. Do we become victims of life, or do we become students of life?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of “Why me?” It’s as if the world has it out for us, and that no one should ever have to experience what we’ve gone through (as if no one else has ever encountered failure). Times like this happen, but more often than not, it’s our flawed view of failure that brings us to that conclusion.

Instead, we must stop fearing failure and let failure fear us. We must embrace it as a learning opportunity, we must embrace it as a chance to grow, and above all, we must embrace it as a means to success, whatever that success might mean for us. To not do so, condemns us to a life of repeated mistakes, and repeated mistakes are nothing but the true ingredients of permanent failure.

And therein ultimately lays the difference between success and failure…

For more check out The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By, a 2014 Global Ebook Awards Nominee, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Sign up above and start receiving this blog to your inbox every two weeks. Comments and thoughts always welcome…