Seeking Success in Frequent Failure

Any writer will tell you; our field is one riddled with mines. For every hit comes a string of misses and at times you’re left wondering if you’ll ever make that homerun. If you don’t learn to handle failure, it can bury you alive, no matter what your occupation. Typically, the best way for a writer to handle frequent failure is to write about it. Understandably, this coping mechanism isn’t for everyone, so to deal with my most recent setback I’ve written some advice on how you can deal with yours.

Focus on what you have gained

When you’re reeling from rejection, it’s hard to look at the positive side of things. It’s perfectly OK to feel disappointed and you should always allow yourself time to mourn a missed opportunity, but never dwell on it for too long. Try looking at it as life experience gained; so you might not have gotten that job you applied for, but you’ve gained interview experience that could help strengthen your chances in future applications; maybe your poem was rejected by a prestigious publication, but next time your craft will be tighter for it. It is important to keep in mind that even if something takes you a few tries, you are getting stronger each time, and this will only benefit you further down the line.

Trust in the universe

Some of you will definitely scoff at this, but regardless of your beliefs, you have to admit that life works in weird ways. For example, sometimes I kick myself for dropping out of my dream university but then remember that I probably never would have gotten with my fiancé had I have stayed. Things that feel like the end of the world at the time rarely are and if we’re lucky, they leave room for better opportunities and experiences that we never even knew we wanted. Think about what you can do now that you couldn’t have done if your endeavour had been successful; maybe that job would have stopped you getting that tattoo you had always wanted. No matter how small or trivial, focusing on the opportunities opened up to you in the wake of failure can provide a welcome distraction. Believe in the butterfly effect and trust that something else will come along, because you’ll only make yourself miserable dwelling on what could have been.

Do not give up

It’s a rather cliché sentiment, but there’s a reason for that. Rejection has an unrelenting way of grinding us down, yet it also helps us build up our characters. It goes without saying, but no successful person got that way by giving up at the first sign of failure. Sure, some people get lucky, but those who are truly fulfilled are those who persevere in spite of the disappointment. Hopefully, the tips and advice provided by this article will help you see the small successes that come with failure to make perseverance that bit more bearable.

Failure doesn’t make you a failure

The word ‘failure’ has been thrown around liberally through the course of this article so let’s just take a moment to dissect it. According to Google, the literal definition of failure is ‘a lack of success’. If you look at it this way, failure isn’t taking from your life, it’s just not adding to it. Of course, that’s still not what we want, but it’s important to remind ourselves that we do not typically lose through failure. It is easy to label ourselves ‘failures’ after a particularly rough patch, but really we are just success seekers and we’re getting better at our vocation with each failure.

What small success did you gain from your last failure?