One of the defining traits of highly successful people is that they have the perseverance to bounce back from failure quickly and easily.
They may change tactics if necessary, but they never give up on their goals and dreams.
There may have been times when YOU set your heart on something — when you created an inspiring vision of what you would love, took action, and stepped outside of your comfort zone to achieve your dream… and then you didn’t experience the results you wanted.
Or maybe you experienced some success, only to slide back again.
That feeling of failure can be tough. I know this from personal experience!
In fact, I’ve often said that I hold two black belts: one in success, and one in failure, and that both have been equally instructive for me.
Both success and failure are important for creating a sense of growth and expansion in our lives.
The feeling that we are growing is what ultimately leads to true fulfillment.
The secret to true fulfillment is having abundance in all areas of your life. Begin creating new results in your life on my upcoming online masterclass.
The proven 3-step formula that the world’s most successful people use to transform failure into growth, expansion and abundance
Every person experiences failure, whether that failure is the dozens of times you fell down when you were first learning to walk, saying the wrong thing to someone you care about, or the loss of a job, business or important relationship.
You cannot live a life and NOT experience failure. It comes with the territory!
But, just because you have a failure, you don’t have to let that failure have YOU.
People who are highly successful, even top transformational teachers, don’t allow failure to lower their self-image, and they don’t use it as an excuse to stop moving toward their dreams.
Instead, they look for what they can learn from the experience — and they then use that learning to correct course, and to propel themselves further and further.
How can YOU use failure to propel yourself to success?
Heather Dorniden of the University of Minnesota races the 600m at the Big 10 Indoor Track Championships. She reminds what a race really is about. What life is really about.
We will fall. We can rise.
These steps apply to both the small, everyday setbacks and the big, life-changing events that may seem hopeless — and can transform failures into opportunities for growth and advancement.
1. View failure as feedback
Thomas Edison was once asked, “How in the world did you keep going after you sustained 10,000 failures on your way to discovering the incandescent light bulb?”
He replied, “What do you mean failure? I never had a failure. It was all feedback.”
In everything that may have looked like a failure to others, there was a piece of information that he used for his next experiment.
When you experience a failure, stop and ask yourself, “What am I making this mean?”
What story are you going to choose to tell yourself about what happened?
Will you choose to tell yourself that this failure means that you’re stupid, or that you “should have known better,” or that you’re somehow unworthy or incapable of creating great things?
Or can you choose to see what happened as nothing more than an experience that you’re having… one that might actually SERVE you in some way when it comes to expressing more of your potential in life?
Instead of making yourself wrong when you stumble, the first step to transforming failure into something useful and valuable is to look at it as nothing more than feedback.
2. Ask yourself, “What did I learn? What was the gift in this experience?”
Napoleon Hill says:
“Every adversity has within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
But like any seed, it must be found, planted, nourished, grown, and then harvested.
You can start harvesting your failures right now, by pausing to take a look at the experience. It may not have been one of your favorite experiences, but there’s still something you can harvest from it, some insight or gift you can glean.
So take a minute right now to ask yourself, “What is the gift in my most recent failure? What lesson can I take away from it that will help move me forward?
In her upcoming masterclass, Mary reveals that the key to creating everything you truly want in life is being able to overcome the limiting beliefs that block your connection to this abundant universe.
3. Take action
Once you’ve discovered the lesson or gift within the failure, ask yourself: “How can I use this to help me move closer toward what it is that I would love to be, do, have or create in my life?”
If you had an argument with a loved one, for example, and this is something you consider a failure, you could use this as an opportunity to share with them and take your relationship to a new, deeper level of connectedness.
Or, if something more significant has happened, like you’ve lost your job, for example, you could take action toward going out and getting the dream job or starting that dream business that you know in your heart you’ve been longing to invest your time and talents in.
The learning that each of us receives from our failures can be a great gift
It’s your life, and you get to choose how you live it.
You don’t have to be defined by your failures, or let them stop you….
When you choose to view failure as feedback, look for the gift in the experience and take action on what you’ve learned, you will quickly begin using your setbacks as fuel for future growth — just as highly successful people do!
Would you like complimentary training on how to set great goals for a life you would truly love to live, and how to transform that vision into your reality with speed and ease?
Sheri
I absolutely love you and your teachings. Although I am not in a position at this moment to purchase this program I am watching all your webnars and learning all I can. Honestly, I can’t seem to get enough! Very thankful for you, and I’m noticing what I’m noticing!I am a work in progress 🙂 God bless you!!!
Sherry Rahm
I watched your webinar and was very excited. You showed me briefly how I can turn my life situation around. Unfortunatley, I do not have the funds to do your 12 week course as I am also disabled.I will keep reading your blog though. Thank you so very much. I am definitely going to use the principles you spoke about. God Bless.
Mary Morrissey
Sherry, thank you for sharing your situation! I appreciate you trying to keep it up no matter what!
Please check your gmail inbox since I will send you an email with great info you will find useful. In the meantime, please share the article with friends and family!
Here’s for you keeping up the great attitude!
Lorraine Francis
Hi Mary, thank you for your inspirational emails. I’ve just been reading about turning failure into success and it has rung a bell in my head. I am teaching yr 12 high school students who are going into their final few months before leaving. Some are fine but others are terrified of failure and are procrastinating and falling behind. I am going to start my lesson with them tomorrow by talking about thinking of failure as feedback. How it alerts us to something that needs our attention and that this knowledge is a gift towards success. That is a powerful thought that I know my students will respond to as it gives them hope and a starting point.
Thank you!
Best regards
Lorraine
Mary Morrissey
Hi Lorraine! I appreciate very much sharing your experience about your journey with those students! Let me know how it went!
Stay tuned! My newest article is coming very soon!
Isolde Kühn
Guten Tag,….:-) liebe Mary,
mein tiefster Dank an Dich,durch Deine Lektionen und durch deine Videos,verstehe ich plötzlich,wie das,was in meinen Leben sich ereignet hatte,geschehen konnte und ich weiß jetzt was ich zu tun habe.Ich muss meine Schwingungen ändern.Ich muss meine Gedanken ändern und ich muss meine Angst annehmen.mein fester Glaube an Gott,..:-)..die Verbindung zur Liebe.Meine Liebe zu mir.DAS WUNDERBARE WIR SIND ALLE VERBUNDEN,ALLE UND ALLES.WIR SIND LIEBE UND WIR SIND ENERGIE. GOTTES GUTER SEGEN.ICH LIEBE DICH…:-)..liebe Grüsse Isolde
Mary Morrissey
Hi, I hope you like the article and you can share it with friends and family!
Stay tuned!
Kelly Sutherland
Thank you
Mary Morrissey
Thanks to you Kelly!
Stay tuned! My newest article is coming very soon!
Hamilton
Thank you for your wisdom Mary.
I appreciate you
Mary Morrissey
Thanks to you Hamilton!
Stay tuned! My newest article is coming very soon!
Virginia Reeves
I agree with your points that events are not failures – they are feedback and learning tools. I prefer this word: mis-takes. So much nicer and probably more real.
Mary Morrissey
Thank you Virginia! I like it: mis-takes! So true!
Stay tuned! My newest article is coming very soon!