5 Tips For Dealing With Failure

Failure comes in all shapes and sizes. From failing a test in school to watching your marriage crumble – and everything in between – life is all too ready to remind us of all the marks we have missed along the way. Maybe you can push past the pain or ignore the nagging feeling that you don’t measure up, but eventually everyone one faces a crushing defeat. The thing most people don’t know is that it’s not the failure that defines their life; it’s the moments, days, and weeks that follow the failure. Because believe it or not, the sun will rise tomorrow, and the world will keep going on. Will you?

Here are a few things to keep in mind when failure threatens to overcome you:

No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist. – Chris Hardwick

1. Separate failure from your identity.

Internalizing failure is a natural instinct, but it will only serve to drag you down in the long run. You are not a failure, you are a person who has come across adversity. The second you start linking your worth with your success rate, you will become unsatisfied. Instead of looking at yourself and your life through the lens of your failures, look through the lens of your character, strength, and courage found in getting up and trying again.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill