Handling Failure!

What really is failure?

Quoting Chambers dictionary, ”Failure is lack of success. Failure is to fall short of accomplishing a purpose or desire”.

Find below, my recommended steps to handle failure. You may be familiar with the saying,

“We are the sum total of the people we meet, the places we go and the books we read”.

1. So I ask you? Who are your close associates and confidants? Where have you been outside your comfort zone? What books have you read lately? These three things are key to how you handle or ride through failure successfully. 
2. Ask the right questions of what you have defined as a failure. All failures come with opportunities hidden in them. The question you ask, determine the answers you get. If all you focus on are the problems, you’ll never see the opportunities.
3. Most opportunities come disguised as problems. Don't make it personal. Separate the failure from your identity. Just because you haven’t found a successful way of doing something (yet) doesn’t mean you are a failure.
4. Take stock, learn and adapt. Look at the failure analytically - indeed, curiously - suspending feelings of anger, frustration, blame or regret. Why did you fail? What might have produced a better outcome? Was the failure completely beyond your control? After gathering the facts, step back and ask yourself, what did I learn from this?
5. Stop dwelling on it. Obsessing over your failure will not change the outcome. In fact, it will only intensify the outcome, trapping you in an emotional rollercoaster that disables you from moving on. You cannot change the past, but you can shape your future. The faster you take a positive step forward, the quicker you can leave the debilitating, monopolizing thoughts behind.
6. Release yourself from the need for approval of others, particularly those who do not have selfless interests in your progres. Often our fear of failure is rooted in our fear of being judged and losing others' respect and esteem.
7. Try a new point of view. Our upbringing – as people and professionals – has given us an unhealthy attitude toward failure. One of the best things you can do is to shift your perspective and belief system away from the negative (“If I fail, it means I am stupid, weak, incapable, and am destined to fall short”) and embrace more positive associations (“If I fail, I am one step closer to succeeding; I am smarter and better informed to succeed because of the knowledge I have gained through this experience”).

Absolutely everyone in this world works based on their Time Zone. People around you might seem to go ahead of you, some might seem to be behind you.

But everyone is running their own RACE, in their own TIME. Don’t envy them or mock them.

They are in their TIME ZONE, and you are in yours!

Life is about waiting for the right moment to act.

So, RELAX.

You’re not a FAILURE.

You’re not LATE.

You’re not EARLY.

You are very much ON TIME, and in your TIME ZONE Destiny set up for you.

Don’t rush to get and don't be sad if things turn out to be slow.

In Gods hands time is a tool . He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Be YOU.
Be bold and confident in your uniqueness.
You are created in God’s image - wonderfully and perfectly formed.
You are God’s replica.