Life is unpredictable.Sometimes things take a completely
unexpected course that defies all expectations and results
in failure.
In such situations all our strategic planning comes to
naught and we are left perplexed and, quite often,
desperate. What did we do wrong?
What if, after a lot of introspection, you find that there
were no flaws in the way you approached and executed your
task?
These are questions that will haunt you, more so because
the answer is extremely hard, if at all possible, to arrive
at.
How do you overcome these apparent failures? The key is in
understanding that these so called failures are as
important, if not more, in our progress in life, as are our
successes.
Failures are essential, but, given human nature, not the
easiest thing to get over. And while we are never going to
get around to actually enjoying the process of failing,
there are a few things we can do to appreciate the
positives that arise from a failure.
1 Always remember that there are multiple ways to perform a
task. We pick one based on our understanding of the task,
our skills and experience, and our planning. Most of the
time, applying our knowledge and planning efficiently will
ensure we pick the most optimal path, but it is important
to remember, that at the end of the day, it is a choice
based on limited information and prone to rapidly evolving
external, environmental factors. It can go wrong! When it
does, it is important to remember that there were multiple
ways from which you picked one. Which means that there are
other ways to handle the task. It is far from the end of
the road. Go back and revisit those options given the new
experience and information available with you.
If, for some reason, you believe that experimenting with
different approaches signifies that you don't have a
focused plan of work, please put your work down for now and
spend some time getting rid of that notion!
There cannot be anything more detrimental to your overall
progress and growth as an individual. Read about any of the
great inventors and thinkers that the world has known and
you will realize that the one consistent lesson that most,
if not all of them, thought necessary to pass on, is the
virtue of experimenting and failing.
Success never comes knocking with an 'Instruction Manual'
in hand. It takes planning, persistence and failures -
failures which are the cause for the eventual success.
2 It is in our nature to be impatient.
Everyone wants to complete a task at one go. But that
rarely works. Break your task down into smaller, simpler
units.
Prioritize and take on the smaller tasks one at a time.
Just doing this will ensure that you are able to track and
manage your progress much more efficiently.
You will be able to quickly identify which part of your
overall approach did not work or yield the expected results
and rectify that specific aspect of your work.
Compare this with the situation wherein you attempted the
task as a whole, spent a lot of time working with the wrong
approach, did not achieve the desired result, once again
spent a whole lot of time trying to analyze where exactly
you went wrong, and finally started once again from scratch.
3 Finally, understand that failures are necessary.
They are a part and parcel of our lives and can be a great
learning tool if we handle them wisely.
Most management gurus, including Tom Peters, have for long
been advocating that organizations need to encourage their
employees to fail and should reward these failures that
arise not out of bad planning or bad execution, but by
virtue of evolving circumstances and the effort to find
improved, more efficient solutions.
If you don't find yourself reaping any rewards for these
failures, reward yourself - you've just learnt something no
book can teach you and you may have just started on the
path to discovering something new.
Like one the brightest minds the world has known, Thomas
Alva Edison once said, "Results! Why, man, I have gotten a
lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't
work."
----------------------------------------------------
Barry Share is the Founder and Editorial Director of "The
New Lifestyle Programme" Where you can get your copy of the
amazing..."Design for your Success" a 7 step plan to
achieving wealth health and happiness
=> http://newlifestylepro.com/design-for-success.html
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