What to do when you fail?
Often things are ok, and everything is going as planning—however, some days, they don’t. Either you make a mistake, have a setback or simply fun – it’s never fun. Although, you can’t avoid it either unless you avoid doing anything at all and then you’re not making the best use of your time.
Be flexible and change what went wrong
Failure will always be present in any moments of progress. You should not consider failure as a setback but rather as valuable feedback on something vital for you. Having that mindset will make you progress further and recognise your work’s aspects that you thought was fine but needed work in it. Positively look at the feedback you received from the evaluation and start taking steps to tick them off and make sure the product you produce at the end becomes better. This can go for anything, whether that be an exam score, an assignment or even your personal goals – re-evaluate yourself and understand why you didn’t achieve the outcome you were thinking. Look back at the steps you have taken, the process in which you finished the work, and pinpoint where you can change and improve to create more impact than before. If they haven’t given any reasons for their choice, the simplest and most helpful way too prove is to ask yourself questions such as “What’s the one thing I’ve learnt from this experience?” and “What’s the one thing I can differently the next time?”
Remind yourself why it is important
When you get an outcome which you weren’t expecting, you need to remind yourself why you are doing it to begin with. Acknowledging your motivations and intentions will set you forward into accepting how you are feeling because of the outcome. When you just failed, it will most likely hurt – sometimes a lot even. Accepting the result by knowing your tasks’ purpose, the end goal in mind will allow you not to push the feelings you have away; if you reject how you feel, then those emotions will pop up at expected times later on and can affect your future tasks as well. Furthermore, by denying your feeling, you are also rejecting the actual purpose you started. Getting your desired results or even prioritising your sleeping habit will also affect how seriously to take these tasks. If you continue to push them aside, you will eventually give up on your goal to be further disappointed. However, to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of losing your motivation to continue, you must first understand how motivation works. Our guide on motivation gives an insight into how motivation works and how you can use it to your advantage.
You have more chances to achieve your goals
Failure does not mean the end of the world. Yes, it is painful, and it may be emotional; however, things do not stop there. Your end goal does not change, but the tasks that come in between leading up to the end may. There are many ways you can achieve your destination, even if one of the avenues did not go as expected. You can look at the tasks you have planned out and see which ones needed to be changed. The general difference may be either the end goal may take longer or be achieved through an alternate route. The idea is if you continue onwards with the same unchanged purpose in mind in some way or another, you will eventually achieve it. Failure is only part of the process that can progress at different rates for different people. Progress is exclusively tailored to yourself, and therefore the moment should not play a significant factor in the journey you already take. It is all part of growing slowly.
Ask for help to get through it
When failure hits you, it may feel like only you are affected by it, and you may even feel you are alone in the entire world. However, that is not true. You have already built your community that carries your family and friends who support you only if you share what has happened and how you are feeling. This way of handling the emotional fallout and thoughts is helpful since it allows you to vent it all out. Letting the other person listen to you through multiple conversations will allow you to sort yourself out, and even they can help you out. They can help you ground yourself back to reality again and encourage you to find a way forward.
It may also be a change of having inspiration. Talking about the outcome and feeling towards it will allow you to experience the situation from another perspective. It will enable you to be a better judge yourself and determine the subsequent path forward from there.
Give yourself a break
We recognise that failure may take a toll on you. Asking for help and modifying your tasks positively from taking notes from your loss and moving ahead. However, you should also take a break from all of the work and tasks you have on board to allow yourself a mental rest is also productive. You may think that by taking a break, you are being up productive and not facing reality – that is not the case. Having a break gives you the chance to reflect on what has happened and acknowledge the situation’s gravitas. A day off will help you be significantly more than going straight back to work.