Failure is a part of life. Our professional life is no exception. But a failure should never be considered to be the end of the world. You can find another job if you lose one. If your project has been sidelined, you can start a new one. By improving your performance, you can secure a good salary and promotion.
Accept your mistakes, learn from them and get set to move forward. When you decide to cope with failure, you become ready to take more risks and get out of your comfort zone. Failures expose you to powerful learning opportunities which will ultimately lead to professional success and growth.
Following are some tips to overcome failure in career:
Face a failure bravely
It is human nature to dwell more on the negatives and ignore the positives. A single failure is enough to dampen the spirits. But let it not happen to you. Face a failure head-on. Deal with criticism positively. You can seek advice or contact a mentor. Try to look at the positive aspect, that though you failed, at least you dared to take the risk. Never allow one mistake, failure, or one piece of negative feedback to deter you from your final goal.
Accept, Analyze and Visualize your failure
It will be difficult for you to analyze your failure objectively, during the turmoil. Take a break, engage yourself in your favourite activities and then reconsider your rejection.
Accept the failure, accept constructive criticism and think about it professionally and rationally. You should learn to own up your mistakes. If things can’t get better, there is no point in going after them. You cannot change the past. You should know when to end. When you come to terms with the negative, your pursuit will not be affected. Analyze the order of events and what exactly went wrong, that resulted in failure and then acknowledge it. This will give you a new perspective and help you to figure out your next decision and progress in your career. Visualize your future and accordingly plan your goals.
Learn from those who have survived failure
Almost every successful professional has encountered failure at some time or the other. But they faced it head-on and emerged victorious. Seek advice from such people. When you are convinced that you are not the only one dealing with it, you will be motivated to refocus on your goal and turn the negatives into positives.
Remember, Evan Williams launched Twitter after his podcast directory Odeo became outdated with the launch of Itunes.
Seek support
Share your sorrow with friends. You will receive the support you need. Advice, feedback and outside opinion will help you in your pursuit of the next job. You can use social media to convey that you are in search of new opportunities. Reach out to the people who are in those professions that you would like to be in.
Regain your confidence
The time gap after a professional failure should be utilized in pursuing your hobbies, or brushing up your skills or turning a pastime into a job. You can create a portfolio website to showcase all your best website projects. Attend networking events, meet people from your industry. Venturing out will help you to regain that lost confidence.
Try new things
Make your setbacks turning points of your careers. Try new ways, new paths if you are not getting results by doing things in the same manner. Divergent thinking can be utilized to devise plans to do an activity in many different ways.
Pursue further education
When you decide to try a new style of doing things, you might require extra knowledge, skills and expertise in order to succeed in your career. You can pursue short-term courses, certificate programs, online programs, workshops or seminars.
Create an action plan
Break down your goal into smaller simpler tasks. Decide upon the deadlines and also allocate resources. Identify what all skills you will need at each step.To stay focused in accomplishing all the action points, you must invest in your personality development.
You can be an entrepreneur
If you have a feeling that your current position is not exploiting your skills properly, you can consider beginning a side business of your interest. And who knows, your dedicated efforts can lead to a more satisfactory experience and a successful startup that could replace your job.
Invest in social media
You can promote your business on social media. By growing your online community, you can attract more clients. This will make you aware of the latest opportunities and that will give you a boost in your career.
Success is never final and failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts. Failure is part of being human. You can learn more valuable lessons from failures than from successes by taking your failure in a constructive manner and allowing yourself to learn and grow from it. Develop a positive outlook and move forward. Let failure be your stepping stone to success.
