Bouncing Back From Failure

Funny fails are the most desired failure out of four categories.
There are funny fails, accidental fails, awkward fails and fucked up beyond recognition failure.
No one wants to be in the red with fucked up beyond recognition.
 But shit happens, we're only human. 

Like everyone I have made mistakes in my life and I've had to learn to look back with love and compassion. I can speak with confidence and clarity on this subject simply because I'm human and I have had a crash-course in the four categories of failure.

What I have learnt from failure is that you need to go back to where you perceived that you failed so you can move on.
Whether its a place, person or situation - go make your peace with it to get a new perspective on the outcome. You may not always get the closure you are hoping for but you can walk away knowing you did what you could to make amends.

The first step you take to recover from failure is admitting it.

The second step is don't try and hide failure like a cat burying its crap in the sand-box because shit stinks. Take responsibility and be honest with the right people.

The third step is forgiveness. For yourself.
Take this from someone who has a knee-jerk reaction with failure which goes something like this...
'Oh my gosh! I'm a terrible, terrible person and I deserve the shit-storm that's coming!'
Don't do that to yourself, or it becomes a habit that is hard, if not impossible to break.

The fourth step is to make amends. Say your piece with authentic sincerity and humility.
Apologise, but not profusely. 

The fifth step is my favourite step in my Bounce Back from Failure formula.
This is the part where I go onto Google and research moments in history when people messed up more than I did. My absolute favourite fail is a picture of a cinema board where someone arranged the letters to say:

Harry Potter
Knocked Up
Evan Almighty

Whether that was done accidentally or on purpose, it always hits the funny bone no matter how bad I feel.

The sixth step: Remember the moral of the lesson and learn it so you won't make the same mistake over and over again. Because lets face it...there are some mistakes that we rehearse again and again until we pivot to the side and do a graceful pirouette instead of landing on our arse.

There is one more thing that I do when I fail. I pray to God for the best out-come possible.

 There's a Bible scripture which I have been meditating on lately.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose."

Just one more thing, as an expert on failure.
I can also say that good can come from the bad. What I want to emphasise here is that just because you have failed something doesn't mean you fail everything - and you are not a failure. Just human.

- Sarah x