In a world where we all run after and expect success (personal, business, sport…) talking about failure isn’t politically correct.
Well, it brings contrast, it brings emotion! And the brain likes it!
I was thinking about failure while in Barcelona in front of Christof Columbus’ statue. Talk about a failure! That guy wanted to go to India and ended-up in America! That was sort of a 180 degrees’ screw-up. Can you say you screwed up that much? With such a huge budget and team? I hope not.
With some great marketing he managed to transform failure into success! Good job!
We aren’t all a Columbus, but we all try new things (didn’t you start learning to walk?); we all expect to be successful in what we do. Sometimes things don’t go the way we want (trust me on that one). Now you have two options. Either you cry and keep pulling yourselves down into depression, which is something the brain is good at (no change, no extra energy to burn).
Option two: you learn from it. This requires brain energy and your failure will drive emotion. Use that emotion to create positive memories. Memorisation is a mix or emotion and repetition. That’s driven by the lower layers of the brain. But you will need to use the slow upper part of the brain to create a positive memory.
Your failures are part of your learning curve!
Another great thing with failure is that, mostly, it is rare, it doesn’t happen every day. Most of the people I know are more often happy and successful than in a constant state of failure and depression. So failure creates contrast! And the brain needs contrast to react!
If you only have success or ride on the success of your ancestors, you won’t learn a thing! Sad!
Enjoy failure when it comes on you, and use it to grow!
We are in a very unstable world where having a great life is a challenge, where raising a family is a challenge. You don’t have control on everything, you just can’t. But let’s try to maximise the positive out of the negative.
Oh! and one last thing, when you reflect on what you have learnt, what you went through, what person you became growing through those failures, you will be happy! Just have a look at Sir Richard Branson’s face!