The Art of Failure

Failure has a lot of negative connotations and is something we actively try to avoid. But failure is an important part of life, we need to change our relationship with failure and embrace it, rather than avoid it.

We are faced with failure every day, it gives us a chance to learn from our mistakes, to reassess the situation and try again. Just as we claim ‘bugs’ are ‘undocumented features’, we can re-brand ‘failures’ as ‘learning opportunities’ and take the chance to make ourselves better.

In my life, I’ve had my fair share of failure. Some are just a slight blip, while others can be a little soul destroying. But the common factor from all these failures is that I’ve learnt from each and every one of them.

One of the reasons I’ve been able to bounce back from these failures is that I’m also prepared to fail. This doesn’t mean sitting around and expecting that you’re going to fail but being prepared is always a good step to take; having a ‘just in case’.

I’ve already learnt from my failures, now you can learn from them as well. Let’s stop being afraid of failure and learn to take a chance, give it a go so that you can learn something new. The only way you truly fail, is if you fail to try.