It’s Not the End: How to Recover from Failure

It’s just as well there are ways for recovering from failure.

Failure is a part of life. 

You cannot run away from it. 

If you want to achieve your goals and live a comfortable life, you must fail. 

Your business will go under. 

You’ll get fired from a job. 

You’ll get rejected by your family and friends.

 Your crush will disappoint you.

You will fail to secure a contract. 

When you fail, it’s easier to give up than to keep on keeping on.

To make progress, you need to get up, learn from your mistakes, and persist. 

How can you recover from failure? According to psychologists, your ability to bounce back will be determined by your mindset. 

Do you have a growth or fixed mindset? A person with a fixed mindset sees his abilities and environment as unchanging. 

Therefore, when things go wrong, they take it personally. Such individuals are usually hard on themselves. They criticize and blame themselves when things go wrong.

On the other hand, individuals with a growth mindset don’t think of failure as the end of the journey. 

They view failure as an essential part of the growth process. 

They also believe that they can make changes over time to improve the quality of their lives. Due to their belief system and attitude, they bounce back from failure quickly. 

When they fail, they get motivated to try out new things. Adopting the growth mindset does not happen overnight. To recover from failure, here are some simple ways that you can use.

Accepting how you feel is a great start to help you recover from failure

When you get fired or rejected by your loved one, it will hurt to the core. 

You may even start feeling less confident. And that’s okay. Don’t try to ignore, push away how you feel, or start assigning blame. Don’t even try to coat it with a smile.

Be present with your thoughts and emotions. 

Accept how you are feeling and let it hurt for a while. When you do this, you’ll not only connect with yourself but the pain will also go away quickly. 

If you reject or avoid feeling those emotions, they will keep popping up at unexpected times and this can make you pessimistic, moody, and angry. Not the way to recover from failure.

You are not a failure

Just because you failed terribly doesn’t mean that you are a failure. 

Thinking that you are a failure will affect how you act and respond to other people. 

Don’t fall for this trap. Remember, everyone fails at some point. You are not unique in any way.

For some, it was even worse than for you. 

You failed because you dared to try. 

And you are ahead of the person who never tried anything at all. It’s important to think of failure as something temporary if you want to have an optimistic attitude.

Reflect

One of the best ways to prove to yourself that your abilities are not limited is by keeping a journal. 

Writing down your achievements and aspirations can motivate you to take on future challenges. Also, keeping a journal helps you connect with your thoughts and emotions. 

Connecting with your thoughts and emotions will boost your creativity and performance. 

Journaling also enables you to reflect to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Focus on the present moment

Spending a lot of time and energy thinking about the past won’t help progress. 

Also, being anxious or fearful about the future does not change anything. If you want to improve your results in the future or change how you’ve been doing things, you need to focus on what you can do right now.

There are a lot of things that you can do right now to improve the quality of your life. 

The past is already gone. The future is yet to come. All you’ll ever have is the present moment. Focusing on today and the now will lift the weight off your shoulders.

When we start working on something, it’s natural for us to have high expectations. 

However, in most cases, we don’t meet our expectations. Your new book doesn’t sell. Your crush doesn’t become your life partner. Your business goes under.

If there’s anything you’ll learn from failure, it’s to be detached from the result or outcome. In most cases, you have little or no control over the final result. 

When you focus on what you can control and learn to let go, you’ll bounce back and quickly recover from failure.

Celebrate small wins

To develop a growth mindset and get over your fear of failure, you should start counting and celebrating the small wins. 

As they start to build up, you’ll feel happier and more comfortable challenging yourself with bigger tasks and projects.

You’ll start stretching yourself and getting more opportunities to fail than before. 

Over time, you’ll get to a place where you are willing to challenge yourself. Don’t ignore the small wins. They are the ones that add up to big wins.

Talk to someone

One of the best ways to recover from failure and bounce back is by talking to someone you respect and trust. 

Trying to handle everything alone can be frustrating and overwhelming. As the popular saying goes, a problem shared is a problem half-solved.

Talking with someone will help you come up with new ideas that you can use to solve your current problems and shift your mindset to optimism once again. 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. It might be the one thing that will transform your life for the better.

Take action right away

You don’t have to have a perfect plan to act after failing. 

All you have to do is know what you are going to do next. Don’t procrastinate or relax. Taking action right away will not only motivate you but also accelerate your growth.

Conclusion

Failing hurts. However, if you want to achieve your goals, you have to fail. Your self-esteem and confidence might suffer. 

However, if you use the methods that we’ve discussed, you’ll be surprised by the results