Things don’t always go according to our plans. There are times in life when even the most savviest of us make bad decisions. One think to keep in mind when such things happen is that you have options and wallowing in self-pity is the worst option there is. Instead of letting your mistakes and disappointments get you down, learn from them and get right back out there to try again to accomplish what you set out to do. This is the only logical choice for success.

One thing we can do is look back at important figures in history to see how they dealt with setbacks and learn from their experiences. If we learn from them they can show us how to transform our past failures into springboards for success going into the future.

1: Look at your past objectively.

The great Thomas Edison believed that there were no such things as mistakes, only “eliminated options” which brought him a step closer to his goals each time. “There is no such thing as failure”, he claimed, “only lessons to be learned”.

It is not easy for most of use to see our failures as opportunities for success since society has made us think that if we fail at something than we are failures. Instead of such a self defeating mindset we need to try to be impartial and look at our failures in a strictly analytical way. There is no point in taking our failures personally and letting them bring us down. Instead, we must look at our failures and learn from them so we don’t make the same mistakes next time. If we fail in a business situation, it does not mean that we are failures, but that we didn’t do the right thing to achieve the desired outcome.

If we catch ourselves in a lowered emotional state due to a failure we need to stop ourselves, go back and think about the steps we took that got us to this point. Look at things logically and with no emotion; try to see what we could have done differently to achieve the desired outcome.  Wee need to realize where we have gone wrong, take responsibility for our mistakes and move on with our eyes on our goals.

2: Focus on the purpose of what you need to be going.

Success does not come from eliminating your pain but from realizing your purpose. Always keeping in mind why you are doing what you are doing, while keeping your eyes on your goal, will keep you focused on what you need to be doing to finally accomplish your goal and achieve success. You will need to train yourself to look beneath the surface and see the meaning of what you are doing and why.

To achieve success you will need to look at your higher goals, determine their importance, prioritize them, and focus on what is meaningful to you and will help you get closer to your goal. Simply thinking of all the things that you hate about your job and realizing that you need a change will get get you from point A to point B.  Once you learn to focus on a strong reasons why you need to keep going, you will be much more likely to succeed at each step you take toward achieving your goals. Without a strong sense of purpose, you will lack the necessary motivation and subconsciously doom yourself to failure.

3: You usually can’t see the whole picture from where you stand.

You usually are not able to tell if what you are going will lead to success or failure until some time has passed. What seems like a hopeless situation can indeed be the disaster you fear, but it can also turn into triumph in ways you are unable to predict at the time.

If you allow yourself to get stuck in the “poor me” mode, you will have to force yourself to change your way of thinking and find hope and inner strength to move on with your plans. Looking at others who have overcome setbacks can give you strength and courage to believe in yourself and become successful. Think about who you know of that failed in business at first but ultimately found great success.

Soichiro Honda, founder of the Honda Motor Company, struggled though many failures over the years before finally achieving huge success with the Honda Motor Company finally becoming one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. His inspiring story shows us the power of perseverance in the face of many challenges and the need for creativity and innovation at times of failure.

When you finally get into the right mindset and motivate yourself not not to give up, then life will present you with opportunities you had not noticed earlier.

4: Manage your fear before it manages you.

One of the most prominent things that holds us back is fear. Fear is man’s natural defense mechanism against various threats. Unfortunately our fear response also gets triggered at times of stress not just physical threats. You will not suffer any physical harm if your plan of action fails, but we still feel fear of failure when contemplating our actions. Just because you go through a fear responce in these situations does not mean that you have to succumb to it. Get hold of yourself, take a deep breath, clear your mind and tell yourself that everything is OK and move forward taking your next step towards achieving your goal.

5: It is not about whether or not you have won or lost in the past; it’s about the person you must become to win in the future.

After objectively analyzing your experience that led you to a business failure, you need to look within yourself and ask yourself what kind of person you need to become to get what you want accomplished.

Ask yourself what steps you need to take to become that person. Perhaps you may need more training or education, maybe you need more direct help from a mentor or a coach, or possibly you may need a complete attitude change.

For example, lets take a look at Lance Armstrong, who never won the Tour de France before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. After he got sick, it looked like his cycling career, and maybe even his life, was over. But he did not give up! He fought back hard and won his battle with cancer and followed this great achievement up with winning seven Tour de France titles. Today he credits his success to the person he became as a result of having cancer. He says, “Cancer saved my life.”

6: Accept the fact that failing is a normal part of life, and try to fall forward, in the direction of your goals.

We all fail from time to time and fall flat on our face; the trick is to crawl right back up and keep at it. Try to keep in mind that you are constantly creating your own destiny through the choices that you make. Find courage and determination to drive yourself forward no matter how bleak things may seem. The matter in which you handle a failure has a huge impact on where you will go from there. Try to make yourself fall in the right direction, the direction of the next step in achieving your goal. Instead of dwelling on the fact that you failed, use it to your advantage by turning it into a valuable lesson, which will help you in your path towards success and realizing your goals. Always move forwards even if you are just crawling; each time you inch forwards even if just a little bit you will be closer to getting where you want to go.

7: Retreat does not have to end in defeat.

A temporary retreat due to failure can be a valuable opportunity to regroup, rethink your strategies and goals, and start again with your eye on the final goal. Don’t let yourself get stuck in failure because of your pride. You must be willing to change your course of action which is not working for you, no matter how much time, effort and money you may have invested in so far. You have to be able and willing to abandon the path you are on if it is not taking you where you want to go, shift your strategy and start over again but this time on the right path.

Captain Oliver Hazard Perry is famous for captaining the ship that bore the flag that read, “Don’t give up the ship” during the War of 1812. Most people, however do not know what he actually did abandon that ship. After the British have killed 80 percent of his crew and his ship started to sink, he paddled his way to another ship in a little john-boat, took control of the new ship and finally defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie. If he had not pursued this action, but instead gave up and paddled to the safety of shore, the battle would have turned out very differently.

8: Realize that the pain and heartache you are feeling are only labor pains before your birth.

When faced with a scary or painful situation you need to understand that there is hope on the other side of the stress you are experiencing, even if you can’t see it at the moment. If you allow yourself to quit, you are ensuring that you will not experience the joys of seeing your dream become reality which would make all the stress worth it. Try to turn your anxiety into purpose and focus on what needs to be done, you will eventually become the new person which you needed to become in order to achieve the success you were seeking.

Claim your future success.

Many icons of the past have left a path that we can follow and learn from if we really want to overcome our failures and setbacks. Never let yourself forget that just because you may have failed, it does not mean that you are a failure. Failure is a mindset, not a physical place. Get up and keep crawling, sliding and falling forward in the direction of your dreams. If you learn from your mistakes and keep following your path, eventually you will get there.

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