Wondering why I wrote this? Yes, I faced failures in life many times. Let’s accept that we all face losses in life at numerous points in our careers and personal lives. Every time I learned to pick up myself from where you fall and rebuild again. Yes, life is all about rebuilding. Many of you reading this may be currently living through strange circumstances. We all are. However, some of us might feel like failures right now—to no fault of our own. It’s also possible that many of you are going through the pandemic and wondering if there will be anything left for you in 2020. We must learn to enjoy failures as we want success. Mental toughness is paramount to achieve any goals in life. We cannot execute any progress till we know to overcome our challenges.
Guess what? Start Rebuilding. Nothing extraordinary happens inside our comfort zones.
Failure is a significant teacher, and we should learn from it every day as we go through this journey of life. Personally, it was challenging; however, I went back to the last 15 years and listened to the multiple pieces of advice I got from my family, friends, and colleagues. Everyone has taught me a valuable lesson in some format, and yes, they come back to you when you try to recollect them. The first lesson I learned is before you can rebuild, you need to fail, and you need to keep falling. These are the five key pointers that I would like to take away as my learnings from my failures.
Watch what you say. None of us can choose the perfect words for every situation. Most of my mentors have told me great stories about times in their interactions where they’ve spoken too soon or used language that got misinterpreted. Why should you make this mistake? The answer is simple: because you’ll learn to listen instead of talking, and you’ll quickly understand the power of your words—both positive and negative. Words that we speak can be used against us in many ways, and the human mind can be as manipulative as possible. So the simple solution is to watch what you say.
Watch out for the negativity. We, as human beings, tend to get manipulated by malicious gossiping. Each of us has to learn to identify these situations quickly and avoid them. As a manager, the biggest lesson for me was that a coin always has two sides; just hearing one perspective forces you to make an opinion. Many times we don’t understand the meaning of these conversations till it directly affects you. The most straightforward way is to listen and slowly ignore them. So the simple solution is to distance yourself from such people or situations.
Watch out for people. In the last five years, one thing I understood that people matter a lot in everything you do. The world we live in today is full of intelligent and smart people, and we can leverage those skills effectively. The industry is going through a massive change, and we will realize that we tend to lose our bearings during that process. I have heard people cry out to me about how obsolete their careers have been after for more than 15 years in the industry. The best we can do is support them and motivate them to improve. Trust me, all it requires a little push and support. We always have the odd one out of your control, and the smart way is to part ways. No matter what, still care for your team, and they will make you proud.
Watch out for your health 2020 was a rude awakening for me; after a series of medical reports, I realized that health and mental wellness should be your priority. We always prioritize too much on work and on the lifestyles that we miss out on the basics. I would advise people to get back to their basics of eating healthy and working out vigorously. You will notice that all the money or fun we can have cannot substitute for good health. So focus on engaging in physical and mental wellness.
Watch out for success. Always believe in yourself and your experience, no matter what happens around you. Failures and success are part of life, and they come and go. End of the day, what matters is the hard work and the best effort you put from your side. Remember, success is not defined by others but by you entirely. We have to be prepared to be like the rechargeable battery. So focus on being positive and ignore everything else.
Practice some of these techniques in life and let me know how it helped you. Feel free to connect with me and share your experiences.