Turning Losses Into Lessons: Changing Your Perception of Failure to See Opportunities
FAILURE.
The word alone carries significant weight and meaning when used. Oftentimes we view this word as something bad or even ominous and frightful. If we don’t get that promotion or a new job, or if we don’t get a perfect score on that test we begin to think we’re inept or incapable of success, which leads to despair, which leads to depression, which leads to stagnation…you see where I’m going here? If we allow them to, our past failures will keep us right there, stuck in the past, unwilling or unable to move forward.
Change Your Perspective
But what if we decide to look at our failures from a different perspective? What if we start dissecting our losses and begin to examine what we did right instead of what we did wrong? Let’s use my previous examples of a promotion/new job and perfect test score to explore this radical concept.
So, after being told you didn’t get the promotion within your department or that new job, you reach out to the hiring manager or Human Resources to inquire why you weren’t chosen. You’re told you were a great candidate with great potential, but for that particular position, you needed more (FILL IN THE BLANK). Now, whatever that blank is really doesn’t matter considering you had all the other qualifications for the job. The same logic can be applied to the test example, you may have gotten a few problems incorrect, but you answered most of the problems correctly, therefore you understood the material.
Don't Miss Opportunities
We spend so much time beating ourselves up over our losses, that we’re unable to see our small victories and because we can’t see our small victories, we don’t give ourselves credit for succeeding in other areas. The bottom line is this, failure is not some demonic entity waiting to destroy our lives, on the contrary, if allowed, failure can be a teacher and even a motivator. When our losses are properly examined, we can learn how to turn our good works into great works. Failure can motivate us to think more critically, push beyond complacency, and work harder at whatever it is we are doing; it can produce success, but we have to choose to see our losses as opportunities that we can turn into lessons.
QUESTION TO PONDER: What recent loss have you experienced that you can turn into a lesson? Post your thoughts in the comment box below.
Until we speak again…smooches
I loved this ! Failures are exactly the launch pad that we need for success. Like you said, changing our perspective is super important. Every one loves a good story of how the underdog comes back and has success but we forget in our daily lives we can do that too!
Hi Felicia,
I totally agree. It took me a while to learn how to shift my perspective. I took failing so personally, and thought it was connected to me identity. I felt like I was a failure, not that I was unsuccessful at meeting my goals, and that’s really what failure is; the inability to meet one’s goal, not incapability. I think once we stop allowing our failures to define our identities, it will be easier to see the opportunities they create.