5 Ways to Get Back Up and Benefit from Failure in Your Life and Career

If you succeed long enough in life you're going to fail. A lot. In fact, you might turn that around: if you fail long enough in life you're going to succeed. It is in our failures that we learn how to succeed if we are willing to take those failures and do something constructive with them.

When you fail, and you will, consider the following five ways to benefit from failure in a way that sets you up to succeed.

1. Increase gratitude. When we go through difficult times of failure, such as an unexpected job loss, it can help us recognize and be more grateful for the successes and good things we experience in our lives and careers. The most successful individuals are those that make a daily practice of expressing gratitude and recognizing the beauty in their lives.

2. Clarify and deepen support systems. We learn who we can trust and depend on during times of stress and difficulty. Our close friendships and relationships with colleagues are deepened and made more whole as we vulnerably share with them our experiences of failure and these people become our greatest support as we move toward new challenges and successes.

3. Develop humility. Sometimes success makes us forget who we are, disassociates us from our values, or leads us to treat others as inferior. Failure can be just the antidote we need to deal with an inflated ego and return us to reality, helping us understand anew the good we want to accomplish with others in our personal and work lives.

4. Take time to reflect. Failure often affords us the opportunity to take some time away, to reflect on and understand the reasons behind our failure, and to reset our lives and careers, and renew our focus on our vision and purpose.  

5. Build strength and resilience. If we let it, failure can be a great source of strength, building our willpower and determination to success, and helping us develop the resources to recover more quickly from future setbacks.

Yes, you can do this.

As the Japanese proverb says: fall seven times, stand up eight.