It’s not possible to live life without failing somewhere along the line.

Remember that it took Thomas Edison 10,000 failures before he created the light bulb. That’s what I call persistence.

We come into this world with few skills and little knowledge and learn by trial and error. We try, we fail, and we adjust and try again and so on until we reach, or at least come close to the desired objective. This is the way a baby learns to crawl and walk, how a child learns to ride a bike or fly a kite.

 Your own success depends on how you view your mistakes and failures. No one would consider a baby’s unsuccessful attempt to stand or walk a failure yet we are quick to judge our own mistakes.

When we embrace and learn from our mistakes and failures we are able to move forward. Embracing our mistakes and failures allows us to try again, to continue despite mistakes and failures until we achieve the result we want.

Sadly, society has conditioned us to be embarrassed by our failures and not to admit them, sometimes even to ourselves. Our fear of failure is one of our greatest de-motivators and stops many of us from achieving our greatest potential. How often do we hear:  “I couldn’t do that or I could have done that a few years ago but not now?”  In reality fear of failure stops the attempt.

This little poem might help you view failures differently.

Failure doesn’t mean you’re a failure, it does mean you haven’t succeeded yet.

Failure doesn’t mean you haven’t accomplished something, it does mean you have learned something.

Failure doesn’t mean you’ve been a fool, it does mean you have a lot of faith.

Failure doesn’t mean you’ve been disgraced, it does mean you were willing to try.

Failure doesn’t mean you don't have it, it does mean you have to do something in a different way.

Failure doesn’t mean you’re inferior, it does mean you’re not perfect.

Failure doesn’t mean you’ve wasted your time, it does mean you have a reason to start fresh.

Failure doesn’t mean you should give up, it does mean you should try harder.

Failure doesn’t mean you’ll never make it, it does mean it will take a little longer.

Have a good weekend

Anthony Venn-Brown

anthony.venn-brown@psalifecoaching.com

www.anthonyvennbrown.com