Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the famous inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War, thoughtfully expressed his views about failure as “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” These lines not only summarized life in terms of success and failures but also provides ways to overcome failure.
What is failure?
Let us simplify this criterion of life. As a common understanding, failure is a state or the result of setting a goal but not achieving it. Technically, failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. No, it is not the opposite of success. I believe, it is a variable that depends on the context or we can say, it is relative to an observer or belief system. It seems so accurate and straightforward but practically it is often in the eye of the beholder we can change the definition of failure by changing the perception. Are you wondering, how?
Yes, parents can nurture a child’s mindset by building a close relationship with them, and providing the right aptitude for the characteristics of life, by fostering courage, acceptance, optimistic approach, independence, also by encouraging healthy social connections, teaching healthy habits and modelling positive behaviour. According to the mental health experts children are born “brave” so it is easy to first keep this natural behaviour enlighted in your child. We must avoid fearful statements in front of the children.
What is the right approach towards fear of failure?
- Change Your Attitude first, about Failing.
- Focus on Efforts, Not result or Ability.
- Demonstrate your Unconditional Love and support.
- Very important, Conduct the “Worst-Case Scenario” Exercise with them, by analysing each possible result.
- Help Them Focus on the Solution if they fail.
- Have different Conversations about Success and Failure. Remember, it’s not a one time exercise, you have to discuss it any time at different phases of life.
How to recover from failure?
As I said earlier, reframe the failure to make it a success by the following steps:
- Improvement – teach your child that failure encourages improvement.
- Problem-solving – teach your child that failure helps us to solve problems more effectively.
- Learning – teach your child that failure helps us to learn.
- Character – teach your child that failure helps to build their character.
- Courage – teach your child that failure makes us more courageous.
- Thinking – teach your child that failure encourages thinking.
- Resilience – teach your child that failure makes us more resilient.
- Perseverance – teach your child that failure teaches us about the importance of hard work.
- Experience – teach your child that failure is an important learning experience for us to go through.
- Mistakes – teach your child that failure helps us to learn from our mistakes and improve for next time.
Teach your child Resilience and develop the ability to withstand adversity so that He/She can bounce back from difficult life events. Your loveable child may have to experience stress, emotional upheaval and suffering in different phases of life, this is reality because life is not a bed of roses. We have raised the brave, courageous and sensible generation. I can guarantee these steps will help you to overcome the process of failure and surely your child can turn failure into success.
Failure is a positive opportunity to learn and grow, don’t make it a negative experience that hinders your success.