GIG-OS ENGLISH: Psychology of failure: how not to be afraid of making mistakes?

Psychology of failure: how not to be afraid of making mistakes?

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For most of us, making mistakes is very frustrating. But, did you know that successful people are not afraid of failing? They even consider mistakes as a boost of energy to achieve success!

How can you do the same?

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes”

Mahatma Gandhi

Whenever we make a mistake, we can fall into the so-called “psychological traps.” What does this mean?

We believe the reason is external

We tend to blame external factors for our mistakes: the deadline was too tight, the task was too hard... and so on. We use all sort of excuses to justify ourselves. On the other hand, we consider our success is the result of our own efforts, skills and experience.

We don't want to make more efforts

If we have good results in a task, for example, we will pay careful attention to the rest of our tasks. If we fail, however, we won't want to devote more time, energy or efforts.

We find it hard to admit our mistakes

Why do we feel bad when saying: “I made a mistake”? People are sometimes too proud to admit that they were wrong, even if everybody makes mistakes.

What do successful people say about mistakes?

Sara Blakely, the youngest billionaire woman in the world and head of the Spanx underwear empire, said in an interview that her entire business was built on setbacks:

"Every evening, my father would ask me: 'What did you fail at today?' He helped me to redefine failure. Instead of failure being the outcome, failure became not trying. And it forced me at a young age to want to push myself so much further out of my comfort zone”

One of the greatest athletes of our time and a real living legend, Michael Jordan, is not afraid to confess his failures either:

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Soichiro Honda, the founder of the largest automotive giant, was an illiterate mechanic from a small village who spent all his money on engineering inventions. Everybody laughed at him because he had no results. But he didn’t give up and, step by step, he built an entire empire! Keep in mind this great man’s formula for success:

"Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% failure."

How to learn from your mistakes?

Every time you make a mistake, just take a deep breath and remember that it's something very usual.

Assume your responsibility and think how you could have done things better. Then, next time you face the same situation, you will exactly know what to do to avoid the mistake!

Read more articles here!