Did you miss a goal this year? Don't let that be a stumbling block. Learn from the process. Failure is thought of as something shameful and undesirable. That's understandable, as failing to achieve a goal causes negative feelings regardless of the size of the goal. The way to overcome those feelings is to change the way we understand failure. It is part of the process. Failure teaches valuable lessons if we allow ourselves to learn from it.
Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.
- Mia Hamm
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Redefine failure and learn from it.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Learning from your mistakes is about more than just thinking about what went wrong. The first step towards using failure as a tool for success is to stop seeing mistakes as shameful.
Think about it - a mistake is not just a natural part of embarking on a new project; it is also part of the human experience. As such, they should be accepted as a necessary step towards achieving your goals. In her article "Strategies for Learning from Failure", Amy C. Edmondson classifies mistakes in three categories:
- Preventable. These are the mistakes we often think of as bad. They result from lack of focus or attention to the procedures needed to achieve the goal.
- Complexity-related. These mistakes happen when the goal is the product of many factors - your own motivation, previous skills, your environment, support network, and the resources you have to accomplish it. If any of these fail, you might be unable to achieve the goal.
- Intelligent mistakes. According to Adam Mendler, in his article "What Sales Executives Can Learn From Failure", having the freedom to make mistakes increases creativity and work performance. Without unnecessary pressures to avoid mistakes and the shame that comes with it, employees contribute more frequently and are able to express more original ideas. For example, many great inventions were discovered by accident - from Post-It notes to penicillin. Whatever the source of the mistake, removing any negative feelings about it and re-framing it as a source of new knowledge is the first step towards learning from failure effectively.
![Cover-Oct-Edit[1351]](https://embracingchange.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Cover-Oct-Edit1351.png "Cover-Oct-Edit[1351]")
Next Steps
Rethink your approach to your goal.
Now that you're looking at the mistake without judgment, think of how you got into the situation.
In his article "The 4 Keys to Learning From Failure", Guy Winch suggests you analyze your motivation levels, focus, and mindset.
- Did you feel less motivated to achieve your goal at some point?
- Did something else distract you from it?
Photo by Engin Akyurt courtesy of Pexels.com
Plan ahead.
Identifying what caused the mistake is not enough to prevent it in the future. You need to take steps to prevent that mistake from happening again.
If your goal was to write a novel in six months, you've probably identified a few reasons why you couldn't achieve it - lack of time, insufficient planning, or lack of motivation.
But what can you do to prevent those issues to get in the way of your goal in the future? In our example, you could scale down the scope of the novel, spend more time planning the story, or set a specific time to write undisturbed.
In summary, failure is not permanent. By accepting failure, analyzing its causes and defining how you can eliminate those causes, you're on your way to achieving your goals.
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Great information as we look forward to another year. It’s important to reflect on how “missed your goal learning lessons from failure” can fit into the future. I really like your quote by Mia Hamm.
This is such a great article. Thanks so much for sharing! I enjoyed reading it!