Question: What was your last big failure or set back? Did you get right back up or was it a struggle?
Similar to problems and challenges, your beliefs about failure and setbacks can either propel you to victory or stop you dead in your tracks and send you deep into depression. Taken from “The Winner’s Mindset” training I’ve sprinkled in a few masterful mindsets regarding failure and setbacks. As you read them notice if any resonate with you and commit them to memory.
The 14th Dalai Lama who was persecuted by Chinese authorities and banned from his own country has inspired millions of people to be more compassionate and worked tirelessly for world peace. He declares: “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
The Sage Confucius ads: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
The highly successful American filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian, and musician Woody Allen whose career spans more than six decades was quoted as saying: “If you’re not failing, it’s a sign you’re playing it safe.
Formerly the executive chairman of both CBS and Viacom Sumner Redstone is one of the most successful media magnates in history with interests in almost every major media company and a net worth of over $5 billion dollars. Redstone is famous for declaring: “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.”
Have you ever failed because you didn’t get the financial support or resources you needed? To this Tony Robbins declares: “Effective leaders know that resources are never the problem; it’s always a matter or resourcefulness…there are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states.”
One thing is for certain; if you are a human being living on Earth, you will have setbacks along the road of life, failure is part of life’s design. These could manifest as the simplest of things, like a cold that makes you cough, sneeze, and feel lifeless, or a loss of income from your car breaking down or an argument that damages your relationship with a friend or family member.
Of course, setbacks can also manifest as some of the most heart-wrenching situations, like breaking up from a long-term relationship or marriage, losing your job or business or losing someone you really love to illness or untimely death.
We know setbacks are coming; this is one of life’s guarantees so why do we react with such horror and inability to cope when they do show up?
The first and most important thing to understand is the meaning we give to setbacks. Our minds have been conditioned over thousands of years to pay more attention to danger than they have to opportunity. We call this the old brain, specifically the reptilian brain that responds with a fight or flight reaction. It was designed to help us react quickly and run from a bear or lion when we were out hunting for dinner.
But times are changing; most of us don’t encounter wild animals when we go eat out at Chipotle… other than the rats that love fast food. And we are evolving as a species. The neocortex or new brain, allows us to think from a more evolved perspective and create new meanings.
For instance, if you’re car breaks down, you could lament and get depressed or you could say it’s breaking down saved your life, for if it had broken down in the wrong spot you may be dead. And this could be a sign to go buy or lease a new car so you never have that problem again.
The now revolutionary Apple started off with two men in a garage. Years later we all know it as that multi-billion company with several thousand employees. Yet, almost unbelievably, Steve Jobs was fired from the very company he began. The dismissal made him realize that his passion for his work exceeded the disappointment of failure. Further ventures such as NeXT and Pixar eventually led Jobs back to the CEO position at Apple who was quoted as saying: “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
The main point here is summed up by Jim Rohn, a master motivator who once said: “You learn more when you fail than when you win.”
Can you recount a failure that was fortune? Feel free to leave a comment below. For more advanced training on creating “The Winners Mindset” please visit our store.
