How to Fail Like a Champ

Have you ever…

• Tried something new and failed?
• Bombed a presentation?
• Been late for work or to pick up your kids?
• Felt like nothing you do works?

How did that event make you feel? Pretty crappy, maybe. Maybe you felt like giving up, or as if that thing you were trying was “just not for you.” How we handle failure determines how successful we will be. Whether that’s at the thing we were trying, or at life in general.

Here’s an unpleasant truth: Failure is a fact of life. We will all fail at something many, many, many things in the course of our lifetimes. There is no guarantee that everything we try will work perfectly the first time we try it. Or the even the second, or third. Or more, unfortunately.

Here’s another truth: Learning how to fail is a necessary part of being excellent.

So in this post, we’re going to explore how to fail like a champion!

What do you mean?

Failing like a champion means you:

• Examine where you failed, specifically, for opportunities to improve.
• Turn those findings into practice.
• Look at a failure as a challenge to be overcome.

It means you get up, breathe deep, find the learning, and try again.

Software companies frequently say things like “Fail fast, fail often.” Highly successful people will tell you that they learn more from their failures than their successes. Both demographics agree that failures are opportunities to learn what doesn’t work and figure out what will work better. They use failure as a path to success.

Bottom line is, we only really fail when we fail to learn from our failure(s).

Examine Your Failures

This part kind of sucks, to be honest. It’s hard enough to admit I failed without doing a deep dive into all the whys and hows. It’s much easier to just throw up my hands and say, “I guess I’m just not meant to do this.”

The problem with this approach is, if I quit everything the first time I failed, then I won’t ever achieve anything, and I’ll never get good. While I don’t expect to be perfect at everything I try, I do expect that if I think it’s worth trying, it’s worth trying to be reasonably competent. And for that, I have to understand where I went wrong so that I can fix it.

Examining your failure means to look at why you failed. Where did things go wrong? What weaknesses in you or your approach does this expose? Are there some areas you could improve upon so that next time, you can be successful?

Turn Learnings Into Practice

The thing super successful people have in common is that they practice. When trying something they are passionate about, they identify the areas where they need to improve (by examining their failures). Then they practice till they get it right. Over and over and over, even when they don’t want to, even when it hurts, even when it’s frustrating and emotionally draining.

You might think you’re not talented enough to do the thing you’re trying. Or maybe you think that if you were going to be any good at something, it would come easily to you.

The thing is, I believe that it is skill, not talent, that makes you truly excel. And skill is learned. Talent is just how fast you learn it. If you’ve read Grit [affiliate link] by Angela Duckworth, this is not news to you (I really can’t recommend this book enough). In her discussion on this topic, she presents an idea that I have found to be true over and over again:

• Talent x effort = skill
• Skill x effort = achievement

No matter how much talent you have, if you don’t put in the effort, you will not be successful. Conversely, even if you don’t have as much talent as you think you should, you can still be successful.

Putting in effort means you have to practice. And keep practicing until you get it. No matter how talented you are.

Failure as a Challenge

Instead of thinking, “I failed, therefore I can’t do this,” what if you said, “I failed, therefore I need to keep trying.”?

What would happen? What doors would open for you simply by looking at failure not as a dead end, but as a challenge to overcome?

Having to overcome a failure is not a character flaw. It does not mean you are a bad human being. You are not worthless or useless because you failed. It just means you have more work to do. It’s a challenge! Something to stretch you and your skills, something to make you grow.

What are some ways you can shift your mindset from “I can’t do this” to “I need to keep trying”?

• Give yourself time and space to feel sad, or bad, or whatever you need to feel to come to terms with the failure.
• Then pick your head up, take a deep breath, and…
• Remember that you are a human being, and therefore not perfect.
• Remind yourself about times you failed and then succeeded, and how good that felt.
• Make a list of reasons why succeeding at this thing is important to you.
• Visualize what it will look like when you succeed.

What if this really isn’t important?

What if you’re having trouble shifting your mindset because the thing you failed at isn’t one of your passions, or isn’t very important to you?

First I would ask, why are you beating yourself up about a failure if it’s not really important to you? Second, I would say to get clear on the things that are important to you, and spend time on those things instead.

Aligning your goals with your overall purpose in life will help you stay focused on your passions, on things that are important to you, so that when you fail, it’s easier to remind yourself why you’re trying, and to get up and try again. If you’re looking for ways to do that, check out my goals workshop and see if it inspires you!

What did you think? Does this help? What other strategies have you successfully implemented to overcome failure? Share in comments!

Like what you see? Want more?

Join the CGInspo tribe today to get updates directly to your inbox! I am protective of your privacy and will never spam you or share your email with anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time.