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Your Perspective on Failure

All of us have failed, but the only ones that have succeeded are the ones who weren't afraid of failure: the one's that didn't let failure get in the way of their success.


The Light Bulb


An extraordinarily great example that comes to my mind is of Thomas Edison - the man who discovered the light bulb - something that we all cannot live without. He failed at least a thousand times before creating the lightbulb. Let's pause for a minute and admire the passion and dedication that he must've had to keep trying. Think of the number of times he must've felt like giving up on this project and just moving onto something else. However, he clearly fought it each and every time. He fought through it by having a positive outlook on his goals. He knew it wasn't impossible.

Many scholars debate on the number of times he failed and kept trying. It ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 attempts. Regardless, even a thousand failures sounds more than enough to make an average person give up.

What's amazing is Edison's response to his failures:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Having that positive attitude is the key to success. It'll strengthen your mind to push past all negative let-down thoughts, and won't distract you from your main aims. Dealing with failure positively will steer your mind away from wasting your time dwelling on it with a negative perspective.


There are many other such great examples, and fortunately, the internet now provides various lists of such motivational examples at the tap of your fingers.


Personal Example: This Blog


It took me ages (literally, years) to make this dream come true - to have this blog. I knew that I wanted to write from a young age (around 12). I used to write - fill multiple "diaries" just journaling random thoughts. As I discovered blogging, I knew that this was one of the many things that I wanted to do. However, overtime I tried it and failed at it miserably. And to be honest with you, it wasn't even a lack of interest from readers; what prevented me from growing or improving my blog was how harsh I was on myself.

Basically, starting off with extreme excitement, I'd begin a blog, work on it with full passion, and after a while I would just judge it myself and give up. I had many blogs on Wordpress that have all been deleted now because of the number of times I would work on a blog and then delete it all, just because I didn't like it. I would compare it to others' blogs and materials and constantly feel that mine wasn't good enough. It wasn't even anyone else's opinion, but my own.


So what did that mean? - An endless cycle of starting a blog with excitement, criticizing it and dropping it as a project and losing all hope for my blogging dream. I have done this so many times that I have honestly lost all count (possibly about 5 or more blogs till now with pages and pages worth of writing). With this blog, I can already sense that feeling of "unsuccessful" in my mind; because my mind keeps steering me towards the thought that this blog isn't good enough, but I'm learning to push past that feeling. In my case, I'm teaching myself to be a little easier on myself. That instead of labelling it as "unsuccessful", and dropping it as a project overall, I train my brain to think more positively - towards growth and improvement. As for this blog, with the vision that I have for it, all that I need to do is take out a day from my busy life and organize a few things to get it to where I want it to be. And, as I've slightly discussed prioritizing before, I had to get myself to understand that this shouldn't be my priority at the time because I had my law school midterms to work on.


I want to highlight that many times, it's no one else but you who directs your mind in certain ways (usually negative). We have to learn to fight that negative direction of thoughts, and distract it with positive solutions. In this case, I feel like completely restarting this blog, just because I haven't been able to turn it into what I want. However, I had to redirect my thoughts to plan some time into improving and fixing the particulars that I believe need to be changed.


I believe the strength for such internal refusal to particular thoughts builds up with experience.

So, don't be afraid of failure. Because the earlier on in life that you make these mistakes, the sooner you'll get to the refined version of whatever it is that you plan for. Also, it is important to analyze yourself and see where and what you can improve, but not to a point that it prevents you from growing. The entire concept is based on self-improvement each and every day. Changing your attitude and mindset on things that matter to you, one day at a time.


Lastly, every time that you feel like giving up, think of Thomas Edison and how mentally strong he must've been to not let his failures get in his way. Let that inspire you and motivate you. Think of his positive mindset that helped him discover such an essential contribution to the world we live in today.

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