Using Your Failures for a Favourable Result!

How you can Nail it, when you Fail it.

We look for success at an early age. Schools shape us for our future, but as we strive for greatness, School is also the starting point of where our anxiety is ignited, with regular exams fuelling the fires. Our determination is great but our fear for failure is greater.

Nobody likes failure, but we have all failed at some point in our lives, be it exams, relationships or in our careers. When we feel that we have failed at something, our usual mind set goes into complete defeat and I’m here today to tell you, that doesn’t have to be the case.

If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to get a rejection letter, when applying to jobs, you will know that horrible, gut wrenching feeling of failure that I’m referring too. You open up your emails with excitement, only to find that dreaded word glaring at you from every angle - “Unfortunately.”

Feeling like we have failed can impact us in many ways. If we have failed at something we really want, it can stop us from trying again. Failing gives us so many unanswered questions, like, ‘ Why was I not good enough? What could I have done better?’ It’s hard to stay focused when we are upset from the overwhelming feeling of failure. I know this because I too have been on the receiving end of life's harsh rejections. From those failures, I have been able to establish what I should and shouldn’t do, next time I had a great opportunity.

Another thing we learn as a child is how to analyse. For the children whose parents are too over protecting, it can be seen that they are unable to analyse the dangers that surround them as well as other children because they haven't had time to explore for themselves. The sooner you learn of life's inevitable defeats the sooner your resilience can begin to define you. When you are aware of a difficult situation that you may have to overcome in order to be successful, then you must, in short, be prepared.

Overcoming failure teaches resilience, it’s not merely the act of failing that leads to career success. It’s failing and then getting back up and trying again. Coming back from failure teaches resilience, and resilience is the one quality all successful people have in common. - Caroline Castrillion, www.forbes.com

If I have an interview that I have presumed to have gone well, I think of at least 5 things I think I still could have done better. I’ll send them to my emails for safe keeping. If I get a call back then great, there’s nothing else I need to do for the time being, but, If I get rejected, it’s time to apply for a different role and take on the self-evaluated tips to shape me for my next venture. We all know the famous phrase, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. A statement we should always stick too because life isn’t always plain sailing, it isn’t always going to hold the outcome that we were expecting and if that’ s the case, the only thing for it, is to get back in the game. A very important phrase to go by; “If you’re too afraid to get into the game, then you’ve already lost.”

I would also like to point out that a job interview with no job outcome, doesn’t necessarily boil down to all your own efforts. Failure at job interviews, can work both ways. Either you fail because the company that’s interviewing you decided that you’re not right for them or, you decide that the company is not a suitable career choice for your needs.

whenever I have interviews, not only do I focus on what I should be saying to nail the interview but I also make the interviewer aware that I am assessing them, after all, you should always feel like the company your applying for deserves your time. Of course, it can still be disheartening if you don’t achieve your preferred outcome.

Now, there are 2 things that happen when we become too used to succeeding. Either, our ego expands to the point of not being able to recognise failure or we forget how to push ourselves to our limits. Reflecting on our failures is an important step for realising where our weaknesses lay. If we want to keep on succeeding then self-reflection is vital, it’s important to acknowledge our errors. Before we can learn from our own mistake’s we have to first accept that we messed up, if we don’t do this then, chances are, we won’t improve.

We can aim to be polished diamonds with no faults and no more rejections but that’s not to say that our previously effective approach will always work. Sometimes — you’re just not the perfect fit. You may be lacking the experiences or another candidate may hold one more qualification that put them out in front. We just have to take it on the chin and try again.

“Success consist of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

There are a few famous people you may have heard of that have had many failures before they reached their desired outcome. Sir James Dyson, had over 5000 failing prototypes before his best-selling Dyson Vacuum cleaner become a success. Steven Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Art — twice, before he took matters into his own hands and is now the highest grossing film director in the world. Steven King’s novel, Carrie, was rejected by publications over 30 times and when it was finally published, King then went on to sell over 1 million copies in its first year. I guess, what I’m trying to say is, don’t give up and don’t let failure be the very thing to stop you from reaching what you want.

Sometimes the experience we lack, is our experience in failure. The key thing here is too look at modifying our failures to formulate an outcome in our favour.

“You will fail. That’s inevitable. It’s what you do with it.” - J.K. Rowling