The Gifts of Failure

We are more than a week into the New Year, and most of us will have made a few New Year resolutions, objectives, goals or whatever label you prefer to use.

According to YouGov nearly 1 in 5 (19%) Brits own up and say they did not keep any of the resolutions they made in 2021 and another 44% kept some, but not all of the resolutions they made. If you ‘failed’ to keep your resolutions in a way or another, that’s okay!

I’m not going to talk about how to achieve your resolutions, why they’re so important or why you should make them a priority every year. We tend to talk a lot about success nowadays, but not enough about failure and how it’s an essential element for our journey to success.

That sounds mad, I know. But hear me out.

Mindset can change the meaning of failure

When faced with a failure, one generally has two options. They can say “I failed my driving license test, so I need to improve my changing gear skills”or “I failed my driving license test, so I’m a failure.”

A fixed mindset (as defined by Dr Carols Dweck) believes that a failure indicates an individual’s inherent limitations which is then internalised (‘I’m a failure’). This inhibits one’s capacity to grow and also erodes confidence. A ‘growth mindset’ enables an individual to learn from their shortcomings, and to see…