Seeing Failure And Setback In A Positive Way

A lot of people see failure and/or setback as something negative and unwholesome, especially when they had planned what they want to achieve. They rather see it as a spoiler to their plans. However, what they fail to realise is that it is not completely bad, and I will explain the reasons. There are many people that have achieved great things in life who failed at the initial stage of their life but they did not allow it to dampen their spirit. They held on and achieved their success. This goes to prove that failure is not an obstacle but a pathway to something great.

I once read about a young school-leaver that wanted to study a particular course in one of the institutions in the country. When he finished from the secondary school, there was a need for him to write the mandatory university entrance examination (UTME). When he wrote it, his score was not up to the required cut-off mark and he felt so bad about it. A lot of people saw it as failure and setback but he resolved not to give up. His friends advised him to accept an alternate course that was offered to him, but it was not what he wanted, so he did not take it.

He told them that he did not see the failure to gain admission that year as a setback, rather a step that has been taken backwards to give him the required boost to come back better. So he decided to wait again till the next year to write the exam again. While waiting, he enrolled into a programming academy and was trained in one of the emerging programming languages. In less than 1 year, he gained a certification in programming. With that and with his O'Level result, he applied for a university outside the country.

When he was applying for the university, he already had an edge because of his knowledge of programming. Amazingly, he got two admission offers outside the country, and one of them offered him scholarship provision. Someone that could not secure admission within the country for a particular course, got it abroad with scholarship. This goes to prove that failure is a state of the mind. If you accept it, then it will be your undoing, but if you try again and keep trying, then you can achieve success.

You are the one to determined absolutely your placement in life, and to determine if your failed attempts will stop you or will propel you towards success. Remember the popular story of Thomas Edison who has been attributed for a particular mind-blowing invention. However, before his invention, he tried countless times and kept hitting a seemingly dead-end. But in all these, he did not bend his resolution to achieve his goal.

After a whole lots of trials, he finally got the result he expected and his invention came to life. When he was asked about his failures, he simply told them that all those while, he did not see the attempt as failure, but as a way through which the invention cannot work. So in all these while, he was actually motivated by the failed attempts rather than being discouraged by it. He did not see his failed attempts as failure, neither did he see his minor setbacks negatively. They were all part of his success story.

You have to have a positive mindset even in the presence of setback. Of course, you should know that for the fact that you failed at an attempt means that you made the attempt in the first place. It is actually better than not making any attempt because you will neither learn from the attempt nor succeed at it. It is worthy to note that everything that happens to someone even their failure has something to teach them if they are willing to learn. The story to the glory of many great people are not always rosy, and they are not always sweet stories, but involving challenges, roughness and even failures. Your motivation should lie in the fact that, if they could make it, then there is nothing stopping you from also making it.

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