YOU'LL START TO WIN WHEN YOU EMBRACE LOSING

 You'll Start to Win When You Embrace Losing 

There's nothing like a great failure story coming from someone who eventually found success.
There's a reason why those stories, in particular, are so attractive: because of the fact that we as people like to see happy endings. Rags to riches, the boy gets the girl, the underdog wins the big game.

People are so ashamed about talking about their failures because they associate their short-comings with their persona. They take it personally every time something didn't work out, and by feeling so are open to being bruised an unlimited amount of times for something that may have otherwise only hurt them once. Many people don't know how to handle this fear-- that they might get laughed at by their peers and colleagues, or risk feeling like a "failure" for the rest of their lives.

This is why successful game-changers are hard to come by.

But what if we started opening up the discussion about our failures? If we began to speak as candidly about them as we did our successes or just random tidbits about our day? If we learned to handle rejection and took being the butt of jokes gracefully, and learned to keep our heads down and keep moving forward. What if we decided that sometimes it was better to abandon an idea after it no longer suited us than going about life pretending it didn't bother us that we never tried?

You can fail two ways: upward, or downward. Failing upward means learning from your mistakes and using your new data to try and try again. Speak to experts, make edits, practice and fail, and then repeat it all again.

If you succeed on your first try, chances are you're not building the foundation you need to succeed in the long-game. Ever heard of a one-hit-wonder? If you really want to be great, you'll have to be unsuccessful first. Then with time and practice, you'll learn the secret to success and be able to apply it multiple times. And then you know what you'll become? An expert.

Experts are the most highly regarded in their fields and in turn the most successful. They hone in on their focus and never stop training and building and improving. Every time they fall, they get right back up and use what they learned. Every time they mess up, they just go ahead and try again. But if they got it on the first attempts...they wouldn't be an expert, would they?

Every failure brings you closer to success. Instead of thinking "oh, I failed," begin thinking: "I'm one step closer to where I need to be, and I wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't for my last attempt."

And just because things didn't turn out the way you planned--learn to move with the way of life. Sometimes what you're working toward isn't what you're meant to be doing. Sometimes the dreams you have were only supposed to serve as a catalyst to the goals you actually are meant to achieve down the road. Life has a way of guiding us and building us up to be stronger so that we're ready for when we are met with our destinies. Failing is part of growth.

And the sooner you learn that the sooner you'll never feel like a failure again.