5 reasons why failure is essential for confidence

When we see other people’s successes, it can be tempting to believe that it came easily to them. Or that it was our bad luck that meant we weren’t successful too.

But the truth is that at the heart of almost every successful business, career or relationship there has been some form of failure.

You’ve probably heard the stories of famous people who talk about all the failures that they had before their fabulous successes. For example, the author J.K Rowling says:

“Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I suspected.”

As uncomfortable as it feels, failure is essential to our self-development and to build our confidence.

Coaches have their own experience of failures too. It could be developing new coaching programmes which come to nothing, or trying new marketing methods which aren't successful.

However, from these setbacks, you can become confident about what you do and resilient if things don’t go well.

 If you feel like a fear of failure is holding you back, then here’re five reasons not to:

• You learn more from failure than success. A study at the University Of Colorado has shown that knowledge picked up from successes is easily forgotten, whereas knowledge from failures tends to stick with us for years.
• It teaches you how to get up again and be resilient. The more you fail the more your resilience builds and although you may not want to fail, you’ll lose that fear of failure.
• You get better at taking risks. Those people who are the most confident and successful have a history of taking risks. Learning to step out of your comfort zone and taking even a small risk is essential to building confidence
• It reminds you that every phase of life is temporary. What was a big issue at the time when you failed often becomes less significant as time passes
• You can use it to review what is important to you. If you fail to get a promotion or to achieve your goals it can remind you of what is more important in your life.

If there’s a goal you want to achieve or an opportunity you’d like to take, but you’re scared you might fail, then remember that whatever the outcome is, it doesn’t affect who you are or your value to the world.