海角大神

Virtually no one likes to think of themselves as a failure. It鈥檚 not a good feeling.

Whenever we do fall into that trap, there鈥檚 usually some self-loathing and sadness involved. There鈥檚 also usually some serious justification involved.

It鈥檚 my boss鈥檚 (or my supplier鈥檚 or someone else鈥檚) fault.

The goal is聽impossible.

My spouse/friends/family didn鈥檛 support me.聽

Those kinds of justifications can help us feel better in the short term, but聽they fall incredibly short when it comes to actually helping us succeed in the future.

Instead, every failure should be met with just three things, then quickly forgotten.

First of all,聽what did聽you聽do (or not do) to cause that failure?聽Ignore the impact of聽everyone聽else. What did聽you聽do? Did you not have a contingency plan? Did you not have a full and strong business plan? Where did you go wrong?

This isn鈥檛 about 鈥渂eating yourself up.鈥� It鈥檚 about specifically identifying what聽you聽did to cause the problem. It鈥檚 not about excuses. It鈥檚 about聽avoiding听迟丑别尘.

Once you鈥檝e identified the things you did wrong, identify聽what you could have done differently to eliminate those problems.聽Some of them are obvious, such as simply writing up a contingency plan, but others are more subtle. How would you make better hiring decisions? How would you improve your business plan process?

Ideally, this will lead you to聽reading and learning, which is one of the most powerful parts of eliminating the justifications for failure. Knowledge is the key to a plan for success, and it鈥檚 even more powerful when you鈥檝e assessed the flaws in what you鈥檝e already tried and are seeking to fix them.

贵颈苍补濒濒测,听put the failure aside.聽Don鈥檛 blame yourself for it. Don鈥檛 blame others for it.聽Everyone fails at goals.The people who succeed are the ones who pick themselves up, dust themselves off, figure out what went wrong, and give it another try with new knowledge in their mind.

This is a process I鈥檝e been through more times than I can count.聽The Simple Dollar was far from my first website, for example, and many of the lessons I learned came from the failures. I could have blamed others for those failures and used that as a reason to never try again. Instead, I tried to figure out what didn鈥檛 work and fix those specific elements. I didn鈥檛 dwell on the failures, either; once I moved on, I focused on the new project instead of the old.

There may be reasons for failure. There is no justification for it. There are only lessons to be learned for the future.

The post聽The Justification for Failure聽appeared first on聽The Simple Dollar.