Overcoming Failure

Posted under Goals and Goal Setting

The great poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” As important as goal setting is, understanding how to deal with the blockades we might encounter in our path is also pretty important.

One of the first things you can do is to define the problem. What obstacle have you encountered? Be very specific, for the better you can define the issue, the better you can deal with it. For example, if you’re having capital difficulties in starting your new business, what’s the problem? Do you have enough sales leads? Is there a money leak somewhere? Be as precise as possible in order to help you with the next step.

Once you clearly understand what the problem is, it’s time to start dealing with it. Many times, the way you deal with a problem will work exactly like your initial goal setting process. Come up with some action steps to help you overcome the problem. With these action steps, though, don’t set yourself up for further failure. The only way your going to reach your goal of overcoming this difficulty is by having the right skills, resources, and support. If you don’t have all three of those elements to meet a given action step, perhaps you should consider finding them as part of your plan to overcome the difficulty.

When you’ve actually gotten past the problem, it’s time to make sure it doesn’t reoccur. Oddly enough, this is going to involve some fantasizing on your part. Imagine meeting your bigger goal. Now think about the problems you might find along the way. How are you going to deal with those? If you can create action plans in your mind for possible problems before they occur, you’ll be far less likely to have to struggle with them when they do actually pop up.

The real key to dealing with failure is to embrace the problem and allow it to start the rebuilding process. You learn all kinds of things when you fail, and putting that new knowledge to work on the road to your larger goal will only make you more successful.

Share and Enjoy:

  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • Reddit
  • TwitThis
  • Live
  • Technorati
  • Google
  • Facebook

Also See:

Subscribe and thrive!

No comments, yet. :(

Leave a Reply