Yeah, it’s life. You’re going to fail, you’re going to screw up, you’re going to miss goals, deadlines, and promises to yourself. It’s going to hurt your self-esteem, your self-worth, and dampen your spirits. Sometimes, failure is the catalyst to quitting something; a single setback can set off a domino effect on the entire task you set out to achieve. It can be a spiraling effect that creates a deadly equation in your life: failure leads to failure.

That’s not how you should be looking at it. Failure leads to self-growth, and it makes way for the successes you can achieve, if you just push through.

I’ve screwed up on a hell of a lot of things in my life. I said I would hit the gym religiously, dedicate myself to the place like a holy temple. That lasted a month. I told myself that I would write my first novel in a year. Nope. Then I said I would finish a short story. Nope. So I moved onto comics, writing, drawing, publishing it onto the web. Three months. Find a new job that I enjoy, and uses the skills I have. Still working at the same place for five years. Setting goals is easy. Accomplishing them is hard.

So get ready to fail. Accept that it’s going to happen, and take what you can from it. The first time I went to the gym, I was nervous and skittish. Sure, I didn’t reach my goal, but I did learn about the equipment, and building a successful workout. I didn’t write my novel, but every time I do write something (and have later failed completing it), I have gotten better. The very first step you need to take in self-growth is acceptance of failure. You can’t let it become a trigger to quitting.

When you acknowledge failure, you can look back and see what you did achieve. And then you can shelve that part of your life and move forward. Always be moving forward. The size of the rear view mirror is a tiny fraction of the window looking forward. Remember that. Grow from your screw ups, don’t let them grow on you.

So go out and set some goals. And fail achieving them. And then set some more related goals. Eventually, you’re going to start winning. I promise.

“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” – Tom Krause

“Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.”

“Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.”