A
thought by John C. Maxwell (2016-02-02) from his book, 3 Things Successful People Do: The Road Map That Will Change Your Life
(p. 114). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
John in this
book is dealing with success and he asks a question that many of us would ask, “Doesn’t success mean
avoiding failure?” And that seems like a
good question.
But John says,
“The answer is no. All of us fail. As we travel, we all hit potholes, take wrong
turns, or forget to check the radiator. The only person who avoids failure
altogether is the person who never leaves her driveway. So the real issue is
not whether you’re going to fail. It’s whether you’re going to fail
successfully (profiting from your failure) or allow failure to send you on a
permanent detour. As Nelson Boswell observed, ‘The difference between greatness
and mediocrity is often how an individual views mistakes.’ If you want to
continue on the success journey, you need to learn to fail forward.”
He goes on,
“Unsuccessful people are often so afraid of failure and rejection that they
spend their whole lives avoiding risks or decisions that could lead to failure.
They don’t realize that success is based on their ability to fail and continue
trying. When you have the right
attitude, failure is neither fatal nor final. In fact, it can be a
springboard to success.”
John then
says, “Successful people don’t let failure go to their heads. Instead of
dwelling on the negative consequences of failure, thinking of what might have
been and how things haven’t worked out, they focus on the rewards of success:
learning from their mistakes and thinking about how they can improve themselves
and their situations. Depending on your attitude toward it, failure can either
bog you down or help you along on your journey.”
John tells
of how Leadership expert, Warren Bennis, “interviewed seventy of the nation’s
top performers in various fields and found that none of them viewed his
mistakes as failures. When talking about them, they referred to their ‘learning
experiences,’ ‘tuition paid,’ ‘detours,’ and ‘opportunities for growth.’”
That is such
a good way to view failure.
So what could be holding you back?
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