What Should I Do When Facing Failure?
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Failure is part of life. Therefore, facing failure is one of the essential skills that you must equip yourself when you first start working.
Everyone’s response to failure can be different, but keep these basics in mind to know what to do after a failure.
What is failure at work?
Failure at work is when you set a work goal that cannot be achieved or the results of that work are not as expected.
Job failures come from the following common causes:
- Work experience is more limited than the job responsibilities required
- Goals set too high (unrealistic) to be accomplished
- Not listening to advice from stakeholders
- Failure to organize and use time and resources effectively
- Unlucky
Failure at work also brings consequences that are divided into many degrees. However, these also offer many valuable lessons.
Why is it necessary to have a “spirit of steel” to face failure?
Failure will make you give up
Anyone who does a job sets high expectations and paints a vision of success. However, when it comes to work, what reality brings can make you disappointed, even fail.
If you do not control your emotions, maintain a positive mindset and believe in yourself, you will be dragged down by failure and do not want to continue working.
You will miss valuable lessons
People often say: No Pain, No Gain (Without pain, there is no benefit). If you don’t risk anything, no lessons will be learned and no mistakes will be corrected.
In this way, failure is almost essential to success. Anyone who has ever achieved success has learned that.
They learn to see their mistakes in a different light, accept failure and move on. Looking back, that failure was an invaluable lesson.
This is the only way to success
When your mind tells you to accept failure, you will be more relaxed to face it.
There’s no such thing as a career path, so don’t be discouraged. Sometimes, failure doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong track. Make efforts, wait, overcome difficulties because maybe you are on the right track.
Failure makes achievements more proud
Things that are suddenly achieved or without effort that are very easy to make you unsatisfied and feel bored.
The more difficult it is, the more effort it takes, and the more failures you experience, the more you will appreciate and be proud of your achievements.
How to deal with failure at work?
Treat yourself well
After each failure, the most common thing people do is probably self-blame or self-pity. However, this is the thing that you should not do the most. You and your soul deserve healing instead of complaints.
Give yourself enough time to rest, watch an inspirational video, and bounce back from failure.
Allow yourself to be sad
It is important to acknowledge your feelings. When things don’t go your way, allow yourself to feel sad and frustrated for a short while.
If you try to quell these feelings beneath a false courage, they will only explode bigger and stronger another day.
However, being sad or disappointed does not mean complaining and losing confidence in yourself. You can be sad, but don’t let that sadness turn into extreme thoughts about yourself.
Realize that no one does not fail
No one has a perfect life and always succeeds, even as a billionaire, superstar or some great person. Failure is inevitable not only in work but also in many other aspects of life.
Sometimes to achieve success, you have no choice but to go through failures.
The difference between a successful person and the rest is not because they experience fewer failures, but in how they deal with their own failures.
Comfort yourself with the results of failure
Instead of looking at the bad points, focus on the small successes or things you have achieved in that job.
The final result may not be 100%, but you certainly have accomplished it to some extent. And now you just need to redo from the steps where the mistake happened.
They can save you a lot of time if you start over again.
Looking for the cause
An important step you need to take to deal with failure is to find out the reason behind the failure.
When we fail, our natural response is often to blame and judge ourselves. However, when you analyze the situation to understand what happened, your negative feelings about yourself will be greatly reduced, and your attention will be turned to the specific action that led to the failure. This is also a way to put your mind at ease.
Analyze the situation from an outsider’s perspective to make it easier to see the situation objectively. Understanding why you failed is a very important step for you to face failure and pick yourself up.
Lessons learned
There is always a lesson to be found in failure, and facing failure is learning that lesson.
Failure is like a feedback mechanism. It tells us that something about our approach or strategy isn’t working. By figuring out what failure is trying to tell you, you can turn it into a learning opportunity.
Regardless, don’t be afraid to look back at the whole process again and consider each of your decisions. Re-evaluate your planning, preparation, and execution.
Once you’ve identified what’s not working, you can begin to replace them with better decisions. You will also be able to approach work with a different mindset, which will likely bring you success this time around.
Share and seek advice from friends and colleagues
When faced with failure, most of us withdraw from the outside world. However, there is no reason for you to keep that failure to yourself. Talking to someone you trust allows you to release and remove negative emotions.
Another benefit of sharing is that you can get support from others. It will be easier for outsiders to view your failure objectively without being overwhelmed by emotions.
As a result, they can spot something you might have missed or did wrong that led to failure, and then give you helpful advice to change the situation.
Continue with other works
Facing failure causes you to lose motivation. You will not feel confident to embark on something new. You are afraid to experience another heartbreaking failure. However, this is not the time to stop.
Resist the temptation to procrastinate so you don’t get caught up in the paralysis. With the lessons learned from failure, come up with the best possible plan for the tasks that lie ahead and take action to make them happen.
Lessons from great people who have failed
Bill Gates
Bill Gates is currently one of the richest individuals in the world, but of course his journey to success has not been easy and smooth.
Gates entered the business with a company called Traf-O-Data, which processed and analyzed data from traffic tapes.
He tried to sell the idea with his business partner, but unfortunately the product almost didn’t work. It could be considered a disaster for Gates’ career at the time.
However, this failure did not stop him from continuing to explore new opportunities. A few years later, he created his first Microsoft product and ushered in a glorious career as we know it.
Walt Disney
Did you know, one of the most creative geniuses of the 20th century was once fired from a newspaper for being considered uncreative?
However, with persistent efforts, Disney founded its first animation company called Laugh-O-Gram Films. He poured in $15,000 into the company but ended up going bankrupt.
Desperate and out of money, Disney made its way to Hollywood and faced even more criticism and setbacks.
It wasn’t until a few of his early classic films were released that his name and popularity of the films began to grow exponentially.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was an impressive businessman with groundbreaking innovations. Jobs found success in his 20s when Apple became a giant empire. However, after 10 years of working, Apple’s board of directors decided to fire him.
Undeterred by failure, Jobs founded a new company called NeXT, which was eventually acquired by Apple.
When he returned to Apple, Jobs demonstrated his great prowess by reinventing the company’s image and taking the Apple brand to the next level.
Milton Hershey
Everyone knows Hershey’s chocolate brand, but how Milton Hershey’s starting point is little known.
After being fired as an apprentice at a printing press, Hershey started three separate candy-related businesses, and was forced to watch them all fail.
In a last-ditch effort, Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company and began to see great results.
Believing in his vision of mass milk chocolate, he eventually founded the Hershey Company and became one of the most recognizable names in the industry.
You see, failure is not the end of the world. Moving forward will also help you quickly forget the sadness of failure. It is important that you always maintain your energy and positive thoughts to be able to face failure in the most powerful way.