What Successful People Know About Overcoming Failure That You Don't

How you react to failure will determine your success.

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Everyone fails. Period. The truth is, it’s almost impossible to succeed without first falling flat on your face. But those who do succeed manage to overcome their failures, whereas those who don’t succeed allow their missteps to hold them back. Here are 10 things you need to know about overcoming failure.

1. Self-compassion is essential for growth.

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As you try things, you have to be able to forgive yourself when those things don’t go as planned, because they probably won’t. There will always be outside factors that you just can’t account for that could derail your plans completely. It’s easy to fall into the trap of beating yourself up over not thinking of everything, but that’s just the nature of the game. You can’t think of everything. It’s impossible. So go easy on yourself.

2. Failure is a learning tool that is just part of the process.

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Successful people know that failure is part of the process of success. Sure, there are ways to mitigate that. You can improve your chances of early success with help or experience, but even then, you’re still learning from others’ mistakes. By making a mistake or failing, you learn what doesn’t work, so you can pivot to something else that may work. Solutions are often found in the work itself.

3. Persistence brings you closer to success.

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A setback doesn’t define you. People who overcome failure know that if things don’t work out, they can try again, and again, and again until they reach their goal. Granted, that doesn’t work for everything, and the sunk cost fallacy can be an issue. There’s wisdom in knowing when you’ve exhausted all options, but far too many people quit too soon. They know there is more they can do, but they don’t.

4. Failure doesn’t determine self-worth.

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Achievements don’t reflect self-worth. You are not any more good or bad from having failed. It just means you tried something and it didn’t work out. That happens to every single person multiple times in their life. People who overcome their setbacks are able to separate these things. Sure, it feels good to succeed, but you can’t take it personally when it doesn’t work out.

5. A growth mindset fuels your success.

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A growth mindset involves focusing on the positive, acknowledging what you have achieved and are achieving, and constantly learning. By embracing that perspective, you aren’t falling behind because you are developing yourself through your actions. Instead of lamenting failure, the person focused on growth is already looking to see what lessons they can take from it so they can move on to the next thing.

6. Embrace change and adapt your approach.

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Life is fluid. Things rarely go as planned because life throws curve balls at you regularly. Sometimes they will be good, sometimes they won’t. However, if you struggle against change that needs to be made, then you won’t be able to achieve your goals. Instead, you stay committed to a path that will not succeed. The wise look at the change coming toward them and figure out how to adapt.

7. Self-awareness is key to preventing and overcoming failure.

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Self-awareness can almost be considered a superpower in terms of how big a difference it can make in your life. The selfA-aware person takes the time to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and patterns to make better decisions. Self-awareness helps you avoid mistakes because you know what your flaws are, so you can better take action to avoid them. Plus, leaning into your strengths provides momentum.

8. Supportive people can make or break your goals.

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Success doesn’t often happen in a vacuum. Yes, there is a lot of hard work that you will undoubtedly need to do. However, there is a lot of wisdom and experience out there which can help you find your way. Not only that, but supportive people in your life can cheer you on and lift you up when you are having a hard go of things. Successful people avoid negative people that criticize you constantly.

9. Feedback is a valuable gift.

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They value constructive criticism because it helps them improve their efforts. It can be tough to take criticism. It can hurt for someone to find flaws or suggest improvements on the thing that you are pouring your heart and soul into. But, if you can learn to welcome it, that feedback and advice can help bring you so much closer to your final goal. Successful people understand that.

10. Big goals require resilience in the face of adversity.

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Big goals are big, in that they require a lot of smaller pieces of work to create the bigger picture. Think of it like putting a puzzle together. You can’t just do it all at once, you have to do sections of the puzzle until the bigger picture is complete. Successful people know that they are going to regularly run into problems and setbacks that they will need to overcome. Big goals take time to accomplish.