Failure can be a delay but not a defeat. It is a condition when a person is not able to meet the desired result or an intended objective. Now it is up to you how you are labelling your failure, if you take it as self-improvement it will become a stepping stone or if you start judging yourself, starts losing your hurt, and not able to hold it anymore it will become your stumbling blocks.
If you will see your failure as a mistake and are ready to take corrective action, it will become your stepping stone. You have to move from that particular situation don’t allow yourself to stuck at that point. All individual has different potential and a different set of goals for their success and they do have different strength to deal with failure. Never be afraid to fail. Failure is only a stepping stone to improvement. Never be overconfident because that will block your improvement.
J K Rowling’s Harry Potter books were rejected numerous times before they were actually published. Had she given in to the failures, this unemployed, single mother would not have been a millionaire. It is the determination and perseverance that have made our success stories and not lamenting over them.
The fear of failure is the biggest stumbling block as individuals give up on themselves. If you are not able to set your Goals and not able to channelize your efforts in the right direction, it will become your biggest stumbling block.
“The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.”
― Enid Blyton, Mr Galliano’s Circus
Failure makes us more productive. If you will be optimistic and constantly make efforts to improve performance, definitely opportunities will knock on your door and you can turn your failure into your success stories.
Always learn some lessons from your failure. Failure is actually your virtual teacher as you can learn most of your lessons from failures in life. We really never fail until we give up trying—trying with determination and enthusiasm. Vision means to see the invisible, to feel the intangible, and to achieve the impossible.
Actually, challenges or failures can either be stepping stones or stumbling blocks on the road to success. It is just a matter of how we look at them. We can see a glass as half-empty, or we can see the same glass as half-full. One way of seeing will bring us enthusiasm, while the other way of seeing will bring us discouragement. We cannot be successful unless we have the courage to fail. And every failure contains the seed of success.
When difficulties, obstacles, pressures, and even failures come into our lives, we should always be seeing the invisible, feels the intangible, and in this way, we can achieve the impossible. We may not understand the exact cause behind the difficulty, but if we have faith, if we have hope, we can always be looking at that “flower” that will grow from this “rainstorm.” That attitude is the substance of a successful man.
Opportunity knocks, but most people complain about the noise. We should see an opportunity in every situation; we never really lose until we stop trying. It is said that in the darkness a star shines the brightest. Someone said when life gives you a lemon, make lemonade.
I would like to share a story….
It was a very hot summer day and the humidity was so high that you sweat like crazy. One afternoon my father return from the market with some grocery items which my mom told him to get. I decided to make some fresh cool lemonade for him. As I began a friend of mine called and in the process of speaking to her I didn’t realize that I made a big blunder I ended up adding about five times the amount of lemon to what was actually needed. It tasted so sour that one sip poured into the mouth of an unconscious man would probably bring him back to consciousness.
But as I had no lemon left with me, somehow I had to correct this now, and as much as I wanted to remove some lemon juice out of the water to make it taste perfect again. But honestly, it was impossible because some things in life can just never be undone there was no way to remove the extra lemon from the water but there sure would still be a way to fix the problem.
The only way to correct the situation was to add some more glasses of water and dilute and here I was instead of one I now had five glasses of fresh lemonade ready to be served out to four more people.
Sometimes, I think life is exactly the same, we cannot undo some things that have gone wrong in our life some wrong decisions, wrong choices, and wrong words that we may have spoken can never be undone. It’s not like that we shouldn’t try we should definitely give our very best but after having done we cannot reverse things.
But to still keep trying is like attempting to remove lemon from water and I think that would be such a waste of time. Instead, we should try to work on adding so many right things in our life that the wrong seems smaller than what it was earlier. When problems seem to be helplessly beyond our control rather than simply trying to remove them let us add positivity to our lives and change our experience.
When you develop the skill of learning from your mistakes, you become the kind of person who welcomes obstacles and setbacks as opportunities to flex your mental muscles and move ahead. You look at problems as rungs on the ladder of success that you grab onto as you pull your way higher.
You will become a creator of circumstances rather than a creature of circumstances.
We should learn from the past, but not be stuck in it. Sometimes life circumstances and personal setbacks can haunt and prevent us from seeing our true potential and recognizing new opportunities. What has already happened we cannot change, but what is yet to happen we can shape and influence.
If we pay attention to only mud on the ground after a storm, we won’t notice that the sky above us has already cleared. Don’t focus on the mud. Make better choices today and move on. Nothing is worth more than this day.
We should respect failure as an honour. We cannot be successful unless we have the courage to fail. And every failure contains the seed of success. When we learn from mistakes when we learn from failures, we become stronger, we develop greater integrity.
Thomas Edison tried various experiments before he finally invented the electric bulb. Later when he was asked about it, he said that he wasn’t discouraged by all those failures. “From every failure, I at least learned what doesn’t work.” That attitude is a success!
Edison was quoted saying “many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”.
That is what failure means, giving up when you have every opportunity to continue. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; the most certain way to succeed is just to try one more time. Surely, there is “no harm in trying”. When you give up, you have failed and failure becomes a stumbling block. But when you fail while trying and try again, failure becomes a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block.
Just because something doesn’t work as you planned doesn’t mean it’s useless. Our problem is that we’re quick to jump to conclusions when something doesn’t work as we planned. We lose hope and stop trying thereby missing an opportunity. Don’t lose hope if you can’t see any growth initially.
Whenever you feel low, depressed, and overwhelmed with negative emotions because of the ups and downs that inevitably come in life; whenever you felt like you want to quit, whenever you are just not able to see a reason to continue living; do remind yourself of a simple yet profound analogy.
A man plants fern and bamboo seeds and cared for them really well. He made sure that they both got adequate light and water. The man was delighted to see the fern quickly spring out from the earth and grow really fast, covering its entire surrounding with its bright green colour. But he was disappointed when he saw nothing come out from the bamboo seed.
But the man did not give up on the bamboo. In the second year, he saw that the growth of the fern was luxuriant, vibrant, and abundant, and the bamboo seed? Nothing came out still. But the man continued caring for the bamboo and did not quit.
In the third and fourth year also nothing come from the bamboo seed and the man still would not give up and didn’t quit. It was in the fifth year when the man saw a tiny sprout emerge from the earth. The bamboo sprout was tiny and insignificant compared to the fern. But in just 6 months from then, the bamboo shot up to over 100 feet tall. The man realized the bamboo had spent those five years growing its root. Those roots made it strong and gave it all that is needed to survive, thrive and grow.
Isn’t it true that life does not give anyone a challenge that they cannot handle? If there is a challenge at the moment know for sure, that you have the capacity to handle it. Were you aware that all the time you have spent dealing with your challenges and struggles? You have actually been growing roots. Just as the man did not give up on the bamboo, don’t give up on yourself. Never quit. Don’t compare yourself to others.
The bamboo and the fern are so different, yet, both make the forest beautiful, each one serving a different purpose. Just relax, your time will come. You will shot up and rise high as well. Go as high as you can as high as your potential, not someone else’s potential, be patient, and keep working on yourself, and one day you will shot up like the bamboo tree too. Everything will be happening at the right time. Be patient and the right time will come to you as well. Don’t hurry and don’t worry you are neither early nor are you too late. You are just on time. Your time will come.
What is so humbling about failure that it changes people into better persons? What is so inspiring about failure which incites people to change their story of loss into their story of achievement? Most people are afraid of failure. They do not want to taste the bitter feeling that comes with failure. Failure takes away our biggest fears from us and in turn, gives us the fearless spirit which is most required to be successful.
Success also brings along with itself a lot of expectations. Often, people feel overshadowed by these expectations. A failure provides them a chance to release the burden and start all over again. If a person desires to succeed, the only mantra is – try and try, till you succeed.
If you wish to be successful, work as hard as you can. And if you wish to be greatly successful, stand up every time you fall and stand up with greater energy, stronger motivation, and unflinching spirit.
Life throws stuff at us. Things get in our way or don’t go our way. Projects don’t work out. Relationships go sour. Life gets hard.
The best way to handle the stumbling blocks in your path is to use them as stepping stones. Instead of carrying your past mistakes around with you, place them into your feet and use them as stepping stones The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way in which we use them.
Influencing, inspirational, exhilarating….