Why we should Celebrate Life's Occasional Failures

How many of us succeed the first time we try something? I’m guessing probably not many. But how often do we talk about what we learn from failure, how we would do things differently, and what others could do to avoid making the same mistakes as us? I would guess not often.

The fact is most people will do just about anything to avoid talking about the “F” word. We’re afraid of it. We avoid it. We penalize it.

Unfortunately, there is simply no way to be truly successful without failing … a lot. If you can find a way to genuinely change your beliefs about what failure means to you, view it as a tool that can help you grow stronger, then your behavior will follow.

So, let’s get it out there in the open, face it and celebrate Failure with the following inspirational words of wisdom.

• Just once it might be instructive to pretend you're accepting an award for failure, just to see who you would thank. ~Robert Brault
• You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. ~Pat Schroeder
• Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive. ~Josephine Hart
• Life's problems wouldn't be called "hurdles" if there wasn't a way to get over them. ~Author Unknown
• Failure is an event, never a person. ~William D. Brown, Welcome Stress!
• Try again. Fail again. Fail better. ~Samuel Beckett
• Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it just means you haven't succeeded yet. ~Robert Schuller
• A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him. ~Elmer G. Letterman
• Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
• You always pass failure on your way to success. ~Mickey Rooney
• The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. ~Lloyd Jones
• The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher
• A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn. ~Author Unknown
• Sometimes I think my life would make a great TV movie. It even has the part where they say, "Stand by. We are experiencing temporary difficulties." ~Robert Brault
• Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional. ~Roger Crawford
• Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. ~ William Saroyan
• You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. ~Walt Disney
• There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them. ~Tom Krause
• We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failures as the antithesis of success but it isn't. Success often lies just the other side of failure. ~Leo Buscaglia
• Failure is nature's plan to prepare you for great responsibilities. ~Napoleon Hill