The Bam Bam Martial Arts Character Development Program

How To Have The Right Attitude About Failure

All great leaders and high achievers have developed the right attitude about failing. Why? Failing is a healthy inevitable process of getting to the top in any area of life.

Whenever you try difficult and valuable things you WILL face adversity, obstacles and failure.

How will you respond to this? How will you react when (not “if”) failures happen?

You see, it is impossible for a person to believe that they are a failure and still succeed at the same time.

For this reason, you must learn how to meet these failures with the right attitude.

In order to help you with this, here are seven rules to remember so that you can always “fail forward”.

The Seven Rules Of Failing Forward

Rule #1: Never Personalize Failure – All great achievers experience multiple reasons to think they are failures but they never do. There is a big difference between “I have failed” and “I am a failure”. The first just recognizes mistakes, the second suggests you are giving up. Rather than say “I am a failure” say “I made a mistake”.

Rule #2: See Failure As Temporary – People who personalize failure see failing as a permanent hole they are stuck in. But high achievers look at failing as temporary learning experiences. If you see failure as a permanent condition, you will be mentally stuck there.

Rule #3 See Failure As An Isolated Incident – When high achievers fail, they see it as a momentary event, not a lifelong condition. If you want to achieve hard things, don’t let any single mistake color your whole view of yourself.

Rule #4: Keep Expectations Realistic – The greater the thing you are trying to achieve, the more problems you will probably have. Expect this going into it.

Rule #5: Focus On Your Strengths – Another way to keep from personalizing your failures is to think about your successes and what you are good at. Focus on your strengths. Remember your wins (keep a confidence list and review it!). One of the best ways to always fail forward is to remember and develop your strengths.

Rule #6: Be Flexible In Reaching Your Goal Of Achievement – High achievers are flexible and always ready to vary their approach to a problem. It may be that your initial plan will not work, it may need to be tweaked, or you need to come up with a new method.

Rule #7: Bounce Back – All high achievers have developed the mental habit of bouncing back after a mistake or failure. Figure out what it is that you did wrong and don’t do that again. The key to bouncing back lies in your attitude about the outcome. High achievers can keep moving forward no matter what happens. And they can do this because they know that failures and mistakes do not mean that they are failures. Never see honest mistakes as a defect in you. Learn from the experience and bounce back.

Merit Stripe Exercise: List some things you did this week to “fail forward”: