Failures Are Just Events, Not Declarations of Who You Are

What would you say if you could go back in time and talk to a younger you? You would no doubt give your younger self some stock-picking tips. You might reveal when life-changing events would take place and discuss mistakes you've made in your life.

One thing you should probably teach yourself is something that many adults never learn. When you fail, don't worry about it. Definitely learn any lessons you can. Then move on. A failure is just an event. It's the opposite of success. Both failures and successes don't describe or declare who you are.

They're just things that happened in your life. If you brood over your failures, you'll suffer much needless pain and frustration. You might also be scared to do many things because you're afraid you'll repeat your failure.

You're going to fail a lot. You may have already had lots of failures in your life. It would be a shame if someone didn't teach you that failures weren't that big of a deal when you were young.

Look at Your Failures like a Rainy Day

"Into each life, a little rain must fall."

We often hate rainy days. We have a lot to do. We have to get out of our homes and handle our business. When it's rainy, you hate to leave your cosy abode.

If you're caught outside when it starts to rain, that could be a problem. Maybe you forgot to put a spare umbrella in your car. You're out running errands, and suddenly, a rainstorm appears out of the blue. Dashing in and out of your car getting things done could mean you'll get soaked. If you don't pay attention, you could slip and fall because of the rain, injuring yourself.

There are a lot of reasons to dislike rainy weather.

Yet nature needs rain to produce many of the things we depend on. For example, if it stopped raining tomorrow, the plant-based food you eat would suffer. Rain is required by Mother Nature to produce the fruits and vegetables you love to eat.

You can look at your failures like rain. See the positive side of them as well as the negative.

Every time you've failed in your life, that event has helped shape the person you are. Failures can be marvellous teachers if you let them. However, you limit yourself when you embrace failure as a statement of who you are.

A failure isn't who you are. It's just an event. It's just something that happened. The same can be said for successes. You probably know someone who brags every time he achieves something. It's as if he believes himself to be a success when that's definitely not the case. He's just a person who experienced success.

Learn from Michael Jordan's How to Treat Your Failures

Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the best basketball player who's ever lived. He won six National Basketball Association championships in eight years; if he had taken his failures to heart, that never would've happened.

Jordan missed more than 9,000 shots in his career. He lost nearly 300 games in his life. On 26 occasions, he took what could've been a game-winning shot, but he failed.

He says he was so successful because of his failures. He would learn from them and move on. As soon as he missed a shot, he didn't let it get to him. He understood it wasn't a statement of his ability or inability as a basketball player. It was just a mistake. He learned to do things better in the future, and he moved on.

You must do the same if you beat yourself up too much when you fail. This should be taught to our young people. It's better to learn that lesson early in life than as an adult if that adult ever learns it.