Learning From Our Failures

Picture 133There is an old adage that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So it is with our failures.

Unless you learn from your failures, you are likely to repeat them until you learn from your experiences and correct your course- Every setback you encounter in life contains valuable information that if you study it carefully, will eventually lead you to your success.

Without adversity, you would never develop wisdom, and without wisdom, success would be short lived indeed. When you have made mistakes or have failed, say to yourself,”That is good!” I have gotten that out of the way. I will try never to do that again.”

You will no doubt make mistakes and have failures, but they won’t bother you nearly as much when you treat them like a learning experiences.

Lead From Within: If you do not know why you failed, you are no wiser than when you began.

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Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world. Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies. As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program is engineered to be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world.

Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.

  1. Shanna

    13. Dec, 2009

    There is a saying that “A set back is a set up for a comeback”

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    • Lolly Daskal

      13. Dec, 2009

      Love that saying! Thank you for sharing..very appropriate for the post.

      Reply to this comment
  2. Martin Casper

    13. Dec, 2009

    Lolly…

    Well spoken. I really like your post. so often we get so caught up in “what might have been”, rather than stepping back and looking at where we can improve. I often refer back to another great individual such as yourself, Tony Robbins…he says that we must always “push through” and that successful people are most concerned with not following up and finishing.

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  3. Janet Vanderhoof

    13. Dec, 2009

    Wow, that word for me is very strong. I guess I must be a Pollyanna and always looking for that silver lining. Yes we do learn for our mistakes, but if we don’t have any mistakes we are not growing. I remember someone telling me when you are skiing if you never fall down you are not improving.
    Also, one failure at the moment may be a blessing in the future. Life is a school and I am a student forever learning. Hugs Lolly

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  4. Dorothy Dalton

    13. Dec, 2009

    Great words Lolly – thank you! I would also add that it’s important to act on this new found wisdom. Sometimes we learn and then fail to implement! As Janet said – ilife is a constant learning curve!

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    • Lolly Daskal

      13. Dec, 2009

      Dorothy, I am a true believer in learning and implementing. As Janet knows and says so beautifully in her comment. “LIfe is school and we are its students always learning. ”
      Hugs to both of you! Both of you a very Wise and Empowering Women.

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  5. Bruce Nunnally

    13. Dec, 2009

    An English Proverb goes: “A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Mariner”. We need difficult choices (and rough seas) sometimes to help us to learn to make good decisions.

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  6. Teresa Dietze

    17. Dec, 2009

    So many of important things that form our strengths and make executing our life purposes possible come to us in the guise of adversity.

    What we grapple with forms us. Adversity, in retrospect, may be the exact recipe for developing what we need to actualize what we want the most. In other word, adversity can be a form of what some call divine compassion.

    There is an important qualitative difference between adversity we create for ourselves out of ignorance and adversity that visits us with gifts.

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