Derailed or Inspired: What’s Your Response to Failure?

Failure.  Whether it’s of grand proportions or small-scale, failure happens to all of us at some time or another.  And generally speaking, failure is not the outcome we’re aiming for whenever we engage in a venture, whatever it may be.  Whether we’re aiming for it or not, however, failure is generally part of the game.  Many of the most sucessful people on the planet will tell you that in order to achieve their successes, they had to travel a path marked with numerous failures.  The key to their success — as well as to yours — lies in their response to those failures.  Which leads me to get really curious:  how do I respond to failure?  And how do you?

For many people, failure is the impetus for becoming derailed.  I’m sure you’ve had at least one time where you’ve allowed this to be your response.  You work really hard for some particular aim, it turns out to elude you, and you give up on the venture altogether.  Not uncommon — and certainly not something I’m wanting to judge you for.  What I do want to do, however, is invite you to ask yourself, how might you allow that same failure to inspire you rather than derail you?  Even if it doesn’t inspire you immediately, what if you could take time to be derailed, and then move into the place of being inspired?  What would be possible then?

I’m willing to bet that the aforementioned “succesful people” all have felt derailed at one point or another.  I assert that what moved them forward to eventual success is the fact that theymoved from derailed to inspired at some point.  They took a look at “what went wrong” and tried to find what could “go right”.  Here’s what I want you to consider:  failure is not something to be ashamed of, or even something to avoid.  There is huge opportunity in failure, if you’re willing to find it.  Within that opportunity lies inspiration to keep moving forward.  And that inspiration, when you allow yourself to see it, is what will move you to your eventual success.