5 Embracing Failure and Failing Forward: A Path to Personal Growth

If you struggle with feeling like a failure, keep reading to learn about the benefits of failing forward.

For most of our lives, society has taught the majority of people that failure is something to fear and to avoid at all costs.

If you have dreams and goals, the fear of failure is likely the biggest roadblock that prevents you from living life on your terms.

You will need to make some changes if you want to move forward and make progress.

Discovering your fear of failure will become that much easier when you learn to accept it as part of the process.

After you adopt the right mindset, you will be able to move forward with confidence.

Rather than fearing it, you will learn to embrace and welcome failure in your journey to advance in all areas of your life.

You are about to learn why accepting failure is one of your biggest assets when it comes to reaching success, and you will be impressed with the results.

5 Reasons to Keep Failing Forward

1. Perfection Is Impossible

No matter if you are looking at a skilled businessman or a professional athlete, believing that successful people are immune to failure is easy.

But what most people see is only the tip of the iceberg.

Individuals who reach their goals fail more times than those who don’t.

Before the fame and glory, professional athletes and wealthy entrepreneurs had to start somewhere.

These are people whom we look up to for inspiration.

But most of them have faced more obstacles than you would suspect.

Even after they reach their goals, talented people still fail on occasion.

However, they don’t let their failures stop their progress; instead, they focus on failing forward.

So, instead of paying attention to each failure, try to focus on the big picture.

The setbacks and mistakes that you encounter are the stepping stones that will allow you to live the life that you have always wanted.

Perfection is impossible to reach.

You will go a long way when it comes to reducing stress by accepting failure instead.

2. Failure Is the Fastest Way to Learn

When you are trying to acquire a new skill, you can read dozens of books and watch hundreds of videos, and you will get a basic understanding of any craft.

This information will be enough to get you started, but it won’t help you achieve your desired level of success.

Those who would like to master a skill will need to put their knowledge to use and gain personal experience before they can expect to notice any positive improvements.

By procrastinating due to a fear of failure, you are only delaying the learning process.

With each failure, you will gain valuable knowledge that will help you more than you know.

It will change the way that you view each event and will play a role in your ability to see the value of each mistake.

If you want to take this step even further, use a journal to write down at least one thing that you learned from accepting failure.

3. Failure Builds Inner Strength

Like a muscle, your ability to accept failure and to keep moving forward will get stronger with each use.

But it will also weaken when it remains dormant.

Each time you let the fear of failure dictate your actions, your willpower loses a little momentum.

If your goal is too scary to pursue, then break it down into smaller ones that are less terrifying.

It’s important, though, that you don’t make your goals too easy.

If you do so, then you won’t benefit from this method, and your time will be wasted.

Instead, each step that you take should be slightly outside of your comfort zone.

This balance will help you improve your courage without causing you to burn yourself out.

As a long-term process, you will gradually notice enhanced motivation, courage, and excitement.

Working together, those factors will keep you moving on the right track, and you will reach your goals in no time.

4. Failure Keeps You Grounded in Reality

At the start of any journey, a lot of people make the mistake of having unrealistic expectations about their current abilities.

This problem will prevent them from making progress because they won’t know from which point to start.

For example, those who want to learn to play golf might take an advanced class if they overestimate their current skill level.

But without knowing the basics, their class will do them no good.

Even once you become an expert, you will always have more to learn.

You will never run out of ways to improve yourself.

When you overestimate your abilities, the sting of failure will intensify.

Being objective with yourself will be difficult, which will prevent you from advancing.

Each failure will serve as a reminder of where you stand, pulling your head out of the clouds.

If you learn to view failure as a way of measuring your effectiveness, you will be able to use it to your advantage.

5. Failure Makes You Likeable

Although people often view perfection as a method of becoming more likable, the opposite is true.

When others view you as being perfect, the perception creates a level of separation.

Thus, envy and insecurity can easily take hold.

People often idolize their favorite celebrities, and it will cause them to become nervous and self-conscious if they ever have the chance to meet their idols.

This fear makes it difficult to have a real conversation and to form meaningful connections with others.

In these cases, the celebrities won’t have much to gain because the people with whom they are speaking don’t have realistic expectations.

Rather than making you different, failure makes you human.

Unless someone is deeply insecure or has a vendetta, accepting failure will make YOU more approachable.

In fact, when two or more people share the same challenge, it creates the ideal situation in which to form a lasting bond. 

Final Thoughts on Failing Forward

When you put all of the other factors aside, overcoming the fear of failure is about realizing that you have nothing to prove to anyone.

As you set your goals, do so because reaching them will make you happy or improve your quality of life.

You will then be able to use the other tactics that you have learned to stay focused on what’s important to you.

Because failure is not avoidable, trying to escape from it is a battle you are never going to win.

No matter how you feel, you are already armed with the tools that you need to turn your dreams into reality.

So, it’s time for you to get out there and start failing forward; it’s not as bad as you would like to think.