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Have you ever failed? If you’ve not, then did you at any time feel dejected or down and out?
I’m sure you must’ve faced situations in life where you felt like you cannot make it or you are no good.
Sometimes I also get such feelings – the fear of failure sets in my mind and it becomes difficult to overcome this mental block.
Have you ever experienced the same?
What do you do when you feel you cannot rise up after falling, or where you feel helpless and your efforts prove fruitless?
You begin to believe that you cannot ever rise up. Well, some of you even decide to quit. Isn’t it?
I’d say in such cases you need to take heart from the people who’ve been successful. And you need to make this as your motto: “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
You may also find this earlier post of mine pretty useful:
You’ll read all about failure and how to deal with it. Also, you’ll learn how you should treat your failures and convert them into stepping stones to success.
However, in this post, I want to emphasize on the fact that you also need to be smart, besides working hard to overcome failures.
The key to success and rising up lies in your preparation, hard work, belief in yourself, and being smart.
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” ~ Alexander Graham Bell
The Success Secret
The key to success is to keep trying without fail. I remember when I was small; my teacher narrated an example of an ant that would make uncountable attempts to climb a wall.
Eventually, it was successful. So, if an ant can do it, why can’t you?
This example stuck in my mind forever and each time when I’m unsuccessful, I get more charged up to find other ways to be successful.
Sometime ago, I was approached by a blogger who was just frustrated with her blog. No matter how hard she worked on her blog, it all proved to be ineffective.
What went wrong and what was she missing?
Probably, she did not really understand what it takes to be successful.
I told her a secret that I’ve often used in my own life, whether it is regarding blogging or facing other problems in life.
“Fall Seven Times, Stand Up Eight.” ~ Japanese proverb
The Key to Success : Keep an ACE up Your Sleeve
I’ve seen movies where gamblers keep an ace up their sleeves and use it cleverly to win their game.
Though I neither mean to promote gambling in anyway, nor encourage you to cheat, but I think we can draw an analogy because we sometimes play the role of a gambler in real life.
This is in context to taking calculated risks and daring to do things differently. And, being smart (without cheating) is essential to win the game of life.
So, how can you be smart and what’s the ace that you have up your sleeves like the tricky gamblers?
I won’t keep you guessing, so here’s the secret ACE:
A – Accept
C – Change
E – Explore
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ~ Michael Jordan
Accept
The first step to solving any problem is to accept that there is a problem. Similarly, if you’ve been unsuccessful, you need to accept that fact rather than being defensive or getting into a denial mode.
Acceptance opens the door to improvement and chances of rectification of the problem that stand in your way to be successful.
If you could not be successful after trying to make all the efforts, it either means that you’re going wrong somewhere or you’re not competent enough, apart from other probable reasons.
You need a re-analysis or re-assessment, and then you need to accept your shortcomings. You’ve to come up with a plan to overcome these obstacles.
Remember, that if the river meets a boulder on its course – it doesn’t stop flowing. Instead, it changes its course – and the flow of the river carries on.
Similarly, if there’s something that you cannot achieve even after repeated attempts, then you need to change yourself or your approach.
Once you accept that your approach or way of dealing was wrong or ineffective, then only will you try to change or choose other better ways.
“There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them.” ~ Phyllis Bottome
Change
The solution may not require you to change yourself or your ways completely. But you need to do that in some ways, and you’ve to make efforts to know exactly in what ways.
You need to analyze the problem and your strategy. Try to use your logic and common sense to find a pattern of failure, if there’s any.
Spot out your bad habits that might be one of the causes of your downfall or failure. Make an effort to change your habits and adopt the good habits required to be successful.
You need to be dedicated, highly motivated and determined, besides being courageous and self-confident. If these qualities aren’t there or fully developed in you till now, then work on them.
Of course, you also might need to change your attitude – that makes a hell of a difference. You might need to change the ways of how you react to certain situations or things to be successful.
Changing your ways, methods or strategies might solve your problem. You need to be optimistic and keep trying out new things.
Change yourself to make yourself competent. If there are certain criterions of success that can be improved upon in order to be successful and to rise up, then you need to explore and learn them.
“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. ” ~ Joseph Campbell
Explore
Learning has no age and no end either. You need to keep exploring the opportunities that will help you to be successful. Knowledge is power – change your life with knowledge and experience.
Keep finding new ways and be innovative in your approach. Remember that successful people are not different but they do things differently.
If you need to learn new skills to secure your chances of being successful then go ahead and learn them, even if it requires you to join some course or attend workshops.
There’s no better guide to being successful than your competitors and the one’s who’re on the top – “If they can do it, you too can.”
You don’t only have to adopt this motto, but get on to observing and analyzing them. Find out what they did, which you didn’t – to be successful.
It’s not necessary that what works for others will work for you, but you’ll surely get the basics right, and you can configure the details yourself thereafter.
How easy it is to solve a problem when you have a solved example of a similar problem before you – isn’t it?
In the same way, you’ve successful people before you who’ve most probably been on the same path as you. Treat them as the solved examples and solve your problems by learning from them.
Explore your inner self and the outer environment. Help yourself with all the information and tools that you find, which will help you craft your way to success.
You can create your life options for success. It’ll help you overcome the obstacles in life and achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself.
These are your keys to success that you can use anytime and anywhere. They’re ALWAYS in your hands.
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” ~ Herman Cain
If you’ve ever failed and need motivation, then watch this video and get inspired! Even if you haven’t, it will boost you up!
This is How Winners Are Made ~ YouTube Video
Don’t fear failures – treat them as opportunities for improvement and stepping stones to your success. Failure is your friend, if you know how to treat it well and learn from it.
Tides rise and fall.
You’ve similar tides in your life – it’s a natural process that helps you test and evolve yourself. Enjoy the roller coaster ride of your life with grace and dignity and never lose heart.
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” ~ Vivian Greene
Remember that every time you fall, you can rise up stronger. All you need to is to try and be smart every time.
Next time when you feel down and out, know that you’ve an ACE up your sleeve and you can use it anytime to try to win the game.
With the ACE approach, you can drop the thoughts of quitting and increase your chances of winning. I repeat – always keep this in your mind – winners never quit and quitters never win.
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ~ Nelson Mandela
Over to you –
Did you face any down times in your life when you felt like quitting? What secret key to success did you use to overcome your fear of failure? Share your thoughts and views.
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