Three things to understand about failure

“There is no there, there. You’re just moving towards something. And that’s the whole point of it.” — Gertrude Stein

Earlier this month, I wrote about the importance of being confident in our work.

Attitude isn’t everything but it makes a material difference in the energy we bring to our work and the level of grit we can tap into.

Having said that, doubt and imposter syndrome are real things.

Some of the most confident people I know still occasionally ask themselves, “What if I’m not cut out for this? What if I fail?”.

Instead of being haunted by these questions and trying to dodge the idea of failure, I think it’s important to understand the following implications of failing:

#1 It brings you closer to the truth. Most failures offer lessons that can make us better if you look for them — they’re yours to uncover now, you’ve earned them.

#2 You failed because you’re in the arena. Teddy Roosevelt famously said, “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming.” You could’ve stayed outside the arena, never did anything, and never had a chance to fail. But where would the challenge and meaning be in that?

#3 You decide what happens next. You can’t change the past, but you can learn from it (#1) and figure out how to move forward. If you’re in a position to take another swing at the same challenge, you can do that. If you’re not, you can find another arena to go play in.