What is the true meaning of failure?

Photo by takahiro taguchi on Unsplash

Do you know what does failure really means? Being rejected? Unsuccessful? Uncertainty? Failed attempts? Embarrassing moments? If you are about to give up, give me a moment to let you see the other side of failure and what does it really means.

We always define failure as something that you didn’t achieve,or were not able to get or in a simplest form, the lack of success. Most of our perception about failure is not correct, we often tagged it with moments that are embarrassing or humiliating. For others, they see failure as a destination when they can’t achieve what they want. They also see failure as something that must be avoided at all times or they will be placed at an inconvenient situation.

I have written this article to give you the true definition of failure. We often see failure as a taboo or something that you have to get away from. We never thought failure as “Part of the process”. And always see it as a dead pit that you have to avoid at all cost. We never wanted to do something that will put ourselves in a distressful situation. Our mind always tells us FAILURE SHOULD ALWAYS BE AVOIDED!

The following are the different meanings of failure, these will give you a better perspective of what it truly is:

1. Try again!

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying  when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

If you are at this point that you are working your ass off and nothing is really happening. Maybe your blog, business ventures, university career, professional career, whatever it might be, I know you are doing your best but nothing seems to work and you are still there. I need to remind you that failure just means TRY AGAIN, it means that you have to try over and over again. You just did something that didn’t work it was never about YOU it was about WHAT YOU DID and all you have to do is TRY AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOU’VE FOUND WHAT WORKS.

Trying something is one of the most important thing that you can do for your dreams or goals. It means that you are TAKING ACTION, it means EXECUTION. The main difference of people who succeed and those who don’t are actions. Many people wanted to be rich or be successful but only few actually executes it. Mediocrity chose to rant and make a lot of excuses than try doing something. You are at the other side and you are on your way because you tried and just made a mistake. Try it again! Don’t lose hope and keep pushing!

2. It never existed until you chose to give up

“Winners never quit and quitters never win” – Vince Bombardi

Failure is never final until you decided to give up. Remember when you were at your classroom during your grade school and was suddenly called by your teacher and you can’t answer anything. During that time, you most likely felt embarrassed but now thinking about it, how does it feel? You might just have laughed at yourself and at some point you know now that’s just normal. But if you will look back and remember what you felt before, I know it was a lot different. I guess you never thought of not going to school because of that but if you did, you most likely regret it at all.

The point here is that you might feel like you failed today or constantly failing but until you decided to give up on it, you still haven’t failed at all. THE ONLY FAILURE IS GIVING UP! Since you haven’t given up yet, you still haven’t failed. Remind yourself of all the things that you’ve messed up before and realized that you are still here hustling and making you dreams work. Now, I am saying that you can do everything, you can failed at everything, you can feel embarrassed or humiliated, but NEVER EVER GIVE UP.

3. Progress! Progress! Progress!

“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” – C.S. Lewis

It was never true that you are a failure, or you failed. It just means that what you did doesn’t work. And when things don’t work then you have to do something different and try it again, the point that you’re trying over and over again and still hustling on it means that you are progressing. You might felt like you haven’t moved the needle even an inch, but you have to remind yourself that since you failed at something means that you are on your way. The path to success was never a straight line like what you planned, it will always be something like this:

The best thing about this, is that all those problems and emotions that you felt at this moment are just preparing you to be the person of success that you are aiming for.

4. Outside of your comfort zone

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Roy T. Bennett

When you failed at something this just means that it is something new to you and you still have to learn some stuff. Otherwise, you might have done the right thing in the first place and get the results that you wanted. When you didn’t get the results that you wanted, it just means that you are outside of your comfort zone, which is the place where you will most likely grow. You committed a mistake or something didn’t work because you are doing something that you don’t know yet and it means that you need to learn something for it to work.

You must understand that you learn the most when you failed at something than when you succeeded doing it. Failure is just an opportunity for you to grow and learn something new, it was never about your right to deserve success it will always be about your potential to be successful.

Looking at it this way gives a different perspective that FAILING MEANS GROWING. YOU WILL NEVER GROW IF YOU WILL CONSTANTLY AVOID FAILING OR COMMITTING MISTAKES.

5. Ticket to success

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Trust me, no one ever become successful without experiencing any failure at all. We are in the generation that people make it seem so easy to be successful that it is as if you can be millionaire or have instant success within a month or so. The reality is, it will take some time and YOU MUST FAIL AND COMMIT MISTAKES TO BE SUCCESSFUL. If God will give you the chance to be at the place or position you wanted to be at this point would you think you can maintain it? Failure is a ticket to success, all of these regrets, embarrassment, humiliation and mistakes are just the prerequisite of success. As all of these are preparing you to be the person that can handle and maintain the success that you are aiming for.

Whenever you feel down or wanted to give up, remember everyone encounters these but the main difference between those who TRULY FAILED and who SUCCEED are those WHO NEVER STOPS. Always think that failure is a ticket for you to be qualified to succeed. Never ever think of it as the end, in fact, it was just the beginning of your journey to success.

FINAL THOUGHT

All of these are critical for us to push forward, we must understand that failure means far different from what we initially understand. Hope the above gave you a better perspective and a reason to keep moving forward.