He Who Never Fails Tries Nothing

You fail, you try again, and you make mistakes, because this is the only way to learn and ultimately achieve your goals. There is no other way to learn than by trial and error. Thinking that you are better than others because you never make a mistake is a silly approach.

There is no success without a healthy dose of traps and blunders. Failures like this clear the way for you to walk, showing you that it’s better to look for an alternative or try other options.

What would have happened if Thomas Edison had had enough of the umpteenth time his light bulb failed? Remember, Edison was only successful after 999 failures. He failed time and again. However, instead of thinking he couldn’t, he realized that all those mistakes would be responsible for the eventual development of the artificial light that we still benefit from to this day. It wasn’t until his thousandth attempt that he was finally right.

Failure, falling and trying again is how we achieve important things in life. Throwing in the towel after the first failed attempt may keep us from going down again, but at the same time it will also keep us from achieving anything interesting. What do you prefer?

‘He who fails is worth less as a person’

Do you agree? How many times have I heard this phrase!

Unfortunately, perfectionism is the way the world works these days, leaving very little room for error, little patience for the development of our most powerful creative tool: trial and error.

We are continuously assessed from an early age. We are encouraged to compete with others and always reach 100%. Instead of being happy that we have found out that we are on the wrong path and thus given the opportunity to find the right path, we are punished for it. Sometimes we even have to hear things like ‘this is not your thing’, ‘you have always had trouble with mathematics, mathematics is not your thing’, ‘you always do it badly, you will never learn it’.

These kinds of statements are all disastrous for your self-confidence and slowly make you believe that you should never make mistakes, that you should be good at everything. And that if you’re not this, you’re worth nothing at all. That you are a failure doomed to lead a mediocre life.

When reading these words, you may have thought they were a bit exaggerated, as you are likely to experience peace of mind while reading this article. However, when our patience is at the end of its rope, it is difficult for most of us to control these kinds of judgments.

Our irrational thoughts make us suffer greatly when things go wrong, even to the point that we decide to abandon our goals, projects, and hopes. With this we can save ourselves another failure, which would only shatter our self-confidence even more.

Be more tolerant and less demanding of yourself. Forget the fantasy that you supposedly have to be perfect. It is completely human nature to fail, it is in our nature. It’s normal, and it always will be.

Nowhere is it written (except maybe in your mind) that failure means being stupid, or whatever you want to call it. And being good at something or being successful doesn’t determine your worth at all.

You can fail, or do nothing

The choice is yours. If your fear of failure is so great that it prevents you from clambering back up and trying again, it will probably only get worse in the long run. The idea that you are worthless will then only be reinforced, because you condemn yourself to the fate you so fear: not achieving your own goals.

By doing nothing, you may feel better in the short term because it will not expose you to other possible failures, or to the criticism you may receive from others, or the harsh judgment you may have about fell yourself.

All this you will save yourself if you do not take the chance again and fall. But you will also miss out on a lot of other very important things, such as learning from your mistakes, overcoming obstacles and seeing yourself improve. In addition, you will make it very difficult for yourself to be rewarded for your effort.

Be careful though! Taking this reasonable and mature attitude is not the same as avoiding failure out of fear, especially if you want to achieve everything that means a lot to you.

Conformity is also an attitude that comes from fear, and the only thing you achieve with this is to make a fool of yourself. So make the choice to take a risk. Be brave and dare to fall! It’s not bad at all, as you may have been told. It’s actually an advantage that can help you learn and improve. Nothing unpleasant will happen to you if you make a mistake, so just make it!