Dealing With Failure

It’s amazing how many times we hear the word failure as we grow up. Most of us hear it and are very afraid of it. We are so afraid that we do everything possible to avoid it. But, we don’t recognize the truth of the situation. Nearly all of us fail.

The greatest people in the world fail. Martin Luther King Jr had lapses and failures. Gandhi had weak moments and failures. Mother Teresa’s journal were recently discovered and it was noted that she had serious moments of doubt in what she was doing and whether or not God even existed. Most people think of her as a saint and would never imagine her doubt and the failures that she experienced.

The challenge is that most of us are not taught specifically how to deal with failure. But, I want to quickly share a couple of points.

To deal with failure, you must first:

1. Accept Responsibility– Hold yourself accountable (liable) for your own conscience decisions. You made a decision which resulted in an undesirable consequence (s). Regardless of WHY, you made a decision you thought would have benefited you, you’ve realized the outcome was unconstructive, not resulting the way you anticipated. Be responsible, own up to your decision/choice. 1 Corinthians 10:12

2. Establish Lessons Learned-What can you learn from this moment? Whenever a mistake is made, it is always a moment for self analysis and course correction. In order to correct and move forward, you must first identify, what didn’t work, what led me to make such decision? Keep a record (make mental notes or log in a journal) of the lessons learned to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Proverbs 3:5-6

These are the first two steps in what I call the critical Forward Movement process. I want to share some additional steps soon. But, taking a moment to own your actions and then see how you can move forward is a critical start.