Familiar Territory

An inevitable part of being human is that we all make mistakes in life. Nobody is perfect, no matter how hard we try to be.

That has always made us wonder: Why are we all so hard on ourselves when we make a mistake? When you analyze things, you see that failure can be a real problem. Nobody would choose an error and the trauma that comes along with it over the easy sailing of success, but that leads back to the point, no matter who you are, no matter how smart, funny, famous or talented, you are going to make mistakes and experience failure at some point in your life.

But I wanted to say that our lives are not the mistakes and failures that define us; how we react to those mistakes and failures determines who we are.

“In school, we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, we learn by making mistakes when we look at how humans are designed to learn. We learn to walk by falling; if we never fell, we would never walk.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad

How a Mistake can Crush You

When bad things happen in life, you have a choice in how to deal with them. You always have a choice. You can let the wrong something define you or let the unfortunate incident teach you how to be a better person.

Being human, I have made many life mistakes and bad decisions and experienced failure. There have been times when I was discouraged and felt sorry that life wasn’t fair, and it was easy to place all of the blame on others’ actions.

But if I wanted to grow and evolve into the kind of person I wanted to be, I had to look hard in the mirror and understand that if I let the bad things that have happened in my life crush me, then I am allowing my life and my destiny to be determined by someone else.

When you let your whole being be so controlled by not only the mistakes you make but, even more importantly, what you perceive others to think about your setbacks, you will slowly be crushed by your mistakes.

How a Failure can inspire You

All great things have been accomplished for one of two reasons, inspiration or desperation. What may, on the surface, seem like a failure may be viewed as a victory in the broad scope of one’s life.

You may have discovered a talent you would never have found because you were forced to look for it. You may have traveled somewhere you would never have gone because your failure caused you to move. You may have met your soulmate only after a nasty breakup that allowed you to look inside yourself and discover what you need in a relationship. It is easy to quit in life, and it is easy to go into the fetal position and say, “Enough.”

But when you push yourself to continue pursuing a complete and happy life,  you will find that many of the low barriers we face in life are merely hurdles to hop over on our way to the finish line, not impenetrable walls that stop us from achieving greatness. Sometimes, our mistakes, failures, or setbacks can provide the momentum to push us toward making dreams a reality.

Don’t let the Fear of Failure Determine Your Future.

Whatever the case, we can’t let the fear of failure determine how we live our life because we can fail at any time, and it can happen.

Learning how to deal with the loss and disappointment of having things not work out the way we plan may be the most valuable lesson we can learn in life. Life guarantees only one thing you will have experiences; that’s about it.

You are not assured that your life will be non-stop happiness without any sadness or disappointment. Those just come as a part of the package, but true greatness can be achieved by anyone who sees the risk of failure and disappointment but continues to see what happens.

Do not let the fear of what might happen to stop you from doing anything in life. You may fail, you may look foolish, some people may laugh, and you may be misunderstood, but all of that doesn’t matter if you have to courage to look your fear in the eye and try!

You will NEVER accomplish anything worthwhile unless you create a dream and have the courage to try to make it come true. If you make mistakes or fail along the way, understand that it is not a condemnation of your goals and dreams but a needed step to achieving them. Nobody said that doing anything worthwhile would be easy or quick to complete.

In fact, as in most things, the journey to achieving our goals needs to be appreciated as much as reaching the plan itself. You will always cherish the victory when you know it was hard-fought and won, which will have much more value.

Quotes On Mistakes

“Some of the best lessons we ever learn, we learn from our mistakes and failures. The error of the past is the success and wisdom of the future.” – Tyron Edwards.

“A failure is an event, never a person.” ~William D. Brown,

“I have learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.” – Sir Humphry Davy

“The only time you don’t fail is the last time you try anything – and it works.” ~William Strong

“Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.” – Henry Ford

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~Thomas Edison

“If you have made mistakes…there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start at any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford

“When we begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.” – Katherine Mansfield

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” ~Elbert Hubbard

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” ~Samuel Beckett

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we WILL do by finding out what we will NOT do.” – Samuel Smiles

“If you’re doing your best, you won’t have time to worry about failure.”

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein.

“You know, by the time you’ve reached my age, you’ve made plenty of mistakes if you’ve lived your life properly.” – Ronald Reagan.

“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure… it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” ~Robert Schuller

“One fails forward toward success.”  ~Charles F. Kettering

“Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could do so little.” – Edmund Burke

“One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making mistakes.”  ~Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“A man may fall many times, but he won’t be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.” ~Elmer G. Letterman

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

“There are defeats more triumphant than victories.” ~Michel de Montaigne

“Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, “I have failed three times,” and what happens when he says, “I am a failure.” “~S.I. Hayakawa

“A failure is a man who has blundered but cannot cash in the experience.” ~Elbert Hubbard