Image via Wikipedia

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

- Michael Jordan (NBA Basketball Player)

One of the greatest basketball players of all time admits that he failed not hundreds, but thousands of times.

Can you believe that?  How could such a phenomenal player be such a failure?

On the contrary, Michael Jordan’s missed shots and lost games are precisely what enabled him to be so successful.

I can already hear some of you saying to yourselves, “Oh boy, not another one of those failure is good for you articles.”

The truth of the matter is that if this topic were such a cliché, wouldn’t we have already conquered our fears of failure?  The fact that we are sitting here considering this topic, is evidence of our mutual intellectual curiosity to explore the fear of failure in greater depth.

Failure sucks

Sorry folks, there’s no way to sugar coat this one.  I know that I previously said we should all board the positivity plane, but consistency is overrated and the plane has already left?  Right?

Well… Yes and no.

Yes, failure sucks, because if it were such a wonderful thing wouldn’t we all go out into the world searching for more?

No, the positivity plane hasn’t already left, and you’ll see why.

Since failure sucks, we fear it

Most of the things people are afraid of in life tend to be unpleasant.

We’re not going to walk around and seriously fear our favorite candy.  Instead we’ll just devour the candy bar and enjoy its flavor.

Failure sucks, so we become afraid to reach that point.

But… Failure sucks, only because we let it suck

Just like we can choose to find meaning and reason in hardships, we can also choose to recognize the benefits of optimism.  That is to say, our perceptions of this so called reality can completely change the way we view failure. 

If we simply repackage the failure as a “learning experience,” we benefit more so than if we call it a “failure.”

Calling something a failure leaves no room for interpretation.  It simply means we sucked and leads to nothing but regret, a lower self-esteem, and negativity.

Referring to the unsuccessful outcome as a “learning experience,” on the other hand, reframes the circumstances, and forces us to think about what we gained, rather than what we lost.

Failure then, becomes awesome.

Therefore, if we don’t let failure suck, we can’t fear it

Changing the way we view failure from a bad thing into an opportunity, is like making lemonade out of lemons in life.

By doing this we take the bad out of the situation, the part that sucks.

If we successfully remove all that is bad in failure, all that is left is good.

If all that is left in failure is good, how could we possibly fear it again?