avatarRiku Arikiri

Summarize

How To Fail With Purpose

Failure is the catalyst that propels you in the direction of finding your purpose.

Photo by Michael Heuser on Unsplash

Imagine a way by which you could fail but still win big. A method by which you can mine all the lessons without sacrificing too much of your will power in the process. Yes, you can do just that by failing with purpose.

Failure is an essential component when concerning our goals and dreams. They are inevitable when concerning with actions and the reactions that occur through such and such. Though there is a lot of stigma behind failure that halts an individuals growth.

Society has made us believe that we should avoid failure at all costs. But in doing so we cripple our growth. Failure is one experience that allows us to grow. It helps us map the possibilities of what can be done, and how can we achieve the things we need in place to achieve our desired outcomes.

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People also play a vital role when accepting the chances of failure. Usually, you might be surrounded by people “naysayers” as we call them. Who will demotivate you and push you to give up, probably because they gave the first time they failed.

Remember they are not you, and you are not them. Your path is different than them, the difference here is you and your mindset to achieve your goals. Failure, when coupled with perseverance, allows us to create a timeline of growth through careful experimentation. T.S Elliot once wrote,

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

Trial and errors are an essential component in achieving an understanding of your goals. It helps you to think about the problem space in a repetitive fashion. With each failure, there is an equal chance of finding success. Not all the trials you will experience will be failures. But you should at least try finding failures as much as you can during this phase.

When I was in college, I was always told to keep my head down. I had a rebel nature of finding failure wherever it lied. I had a habit of testing my self through practical exposure. I was a pragmatist at finding out how stuff worked. My main goal those years, was to find how I and the problems I faced ticked and what made me lose interest in them.

Persistence is that one quality when instilled — it took me further than any other thing combined. Sure motivation kept me intact and focused on my goals. But it is the dogged persistence that helps one to achieve greater success in any field of pursuit.

All the great names, throughout history, had one thing in common. They were hella persistent at what they did. Sure you might hear things like quality over quantity from people who have never failed enough to understand what true success is like. But I’m here to tell you that all greats tried thousands of times before they reached a point, where they were able to craft quality.

In the art of experimentation, trials and errors allow you to create something through a multitude of ways. If you pass one the first time, you should ask yourself these questions?

Did I do something wrong?

If I try doing it another way?

What would happen If I change my approach? Would the results be the same?

Sometimes most people confuse the one-time success to be absolute. In doing so, they lose sight of their learning journey. They are distracted by the wonder of what success promises. Forgetting that there is a treasure worth exploring in the world of failure.

Constant failure helps you to improve beyond reason.You learn the art of making the right decisions through it.

Jeff Bezos wrote in his annual letter of 2018 to his shareholders,

First, failure has to be part of growth. “As a company grows, everything needs to scale, including the size of your failed experiments. If the size of your failures isn’t growing, you’re not going to be inventing at a size that can actually move the needle.

Failure As A System For Success

Failure is essential, and constant failure is necessary. If you do not fail regularly, you ask yourself whether there is something wrong with your approach. For example, if I build a system for a company incorporating all their finance applications. The installation goes smoothly without a glitch. Everything seems to be working fine. I should definitely try stress testing on it before I assign actual work on it.

Even though the system is built, it doesn’t guarantee it will run properly when the workload on it will be assigned. Testing is an important measure which involves a lot of failures to measure performance. If a given system doesn’t fail, it might be the case that the system was not perfect in the first place. Or another unprecedented issue might arise in the future.

“Successful people don’t fear failure but understand that it’s necessary to learn and grow from.” — Robert Kiyosaki

Failure is the best metric when it comes to measuring success. Thus it should be measured as a variable in everything you do. It helps to map all the contingencies as well as the functions a system performs.

When concerning your pursuit of goals. You should incorporate a system which you can follow. You should create a timeline of goals, in which you should try as much as you can to create opportunities for testing through failure.

Photo by John T on Unsplash

Without failure, it is hard to know whether you are working properly or not. Thus failure should be an essential part of your purpose towards success as well. There comes a time when failing becomes simple. The mind becomes susceptible to accepting failure to become resilient.

Hardships in life are inevitable. You should always try to seek failure with an open-mindedness to achieve your goals. As you will learn all the different ways, to go around a problem. Thus eventually finding the ways that help you solve your problems.

Use failure as the catalyst that propels you towards finding your purpose.

Failures are bound to happen, thus we should organize ourselves to accept failure wherever it may lie. It is the pillar when established can help us creating our foothold in our pursuit of happiness and success.

Thus foster a mindset that allows you to fail, without mercy. Fail with content and persevere the hardships. In time, you will learn how it moulds you into a finer person. Filled with the magnetic qualities that will make you move mountains in any life area that you pursue.

So Fail with a zest, and embrace your hardships. You will find your success in time.

The Takeaway

  • Create an action plan, to map failure.
  • Try experiencing failure, as many times as you can.
  • Learn and self reflect on your purpose.
  • Repeat the process, as many times as you can with the newly found perspective.
  • Improve, and document your journey.
  • Learn and perhaps teach another your ways.
  • Highlight constant failure as a key metric for success.
Education
Philosophy
Self Improvement
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