Many of us make mistakes as if we’re in a loop, but some insights can help us avoid repeating the same mistakes repeatedly, reducing our errors over time.

Currently, we see people celebrating their mistakes, not just errors but also failures in various aspects of their lives. Loss is being encouraged to be celebrated these days. Having difficulties or being disappointed by something is part of becoming a successful person. It’s like a turning point that can transform all your moments of failure into moments of triumph.

However, it’s not always that simple because we’re dealing with people and have difficulty dealing with errors or “failures” constructively. Often, we try to downplay the actual weight of the task in which we failed.

Another common approach is ignoring errors and continuing our daily routines as if that error had never happened. This is a poor strategy because it prevents us from learning from our mistakes and growing.

Many people seek to motivate teams by encouraging them to “fail again but fail better.” However, the truth is that many people will fail again and fail in the same way.

One of the best ways to learn from errors intelligently is to seek out people who have made the same mistakes and exchange their experiences. Helping others solve problems is an excellent way to learn from them.

Giving Up 

Most people tend to abandon their dreams and desires too quickly. Understanding why people give up so easily when they encounter an obstacle can significantly affect their lives and productivity in their work.

When most people receive negative feedback, it tends to shut them down, affecting their future potential and productivity in future situations.

Most people who receive more negative feedback tend to act more toward their happiness or even seek self-improvement.

Even people who fail initially and then succeed in something tend to feel better and happier than when they died or had a negative experience. This is a form of self-defense, as we want to feel competent. That’s why negative feedback on a task or action can bring demotivation and negative feelings about oneself.

Failing Constructively 

Failure presents a cognitive challenge, meaning that the information from loss can be more challenging to process than successful experiences. This is because “success points to a winning strategy.”

When facing a task, it’s essential to make a realistic assessment of whether the effort will be worth it. If we fail at something, we naturally lean towards success, but sometimes success has nothing to do with us. How can we make our brains pay more attention to the value of failures?

• Focus on long-term goals: Learning from our failures is something we all need to master, and having plans to keep us motivated helps. Long-term goals, such as becoming a doctor or learning to sail, help us learn from short-term failures because they remind us that the pain and frustration of failing in the moment will eventually lead to success.
• Practice mindfulness: People rarely intend to fail, so that failure can be a wake-up call—and that’s a good thing. If you are surprised by failure, try to be more mindful of it. Several studies suggest that practicing mindfulness and cultivating non-judgmental awareness of thoughts and experiences can help you grow from failure.
• Learn from past lessons: Since failure requires us to interpret and rethink what happened, we may need to reduce our mental load as much as possible in its aftermath. We can do this by focusing on fewer tasks that present opportunities for failure and increasing our capacity to learn by engaging in more periodic tasks that offer options for loss. In other words, if you’re learning to do something difficult, you may need to prioritize it over more manageable tasks. Repetition also helps. In other words, practice makes perfect—or at least good enough.
• Don’t be too hard on yourself: Many people believe they must be tough on themselves in the wake of failure. Studies suggest that you are more likely to grow if you talk to yourself with the same love and kindness that a loved one might show you. 

Along with self-compassion, another component of self-compassion is worth mentioning: shared humanity. This is the awareness of our connection to other people and the universality of the human experience. We are all bound to fail at some point—it’s inevitable. What matters is how we deal with that failure.

Avoiding Predictable Errors 

Many organizational failures are due to job uncertainty: the situations, problems, and needs you face may never have arisen. Responding to an emergency in a hospital, fighting on a battlefield, and running a rapidly growing startup occur in unpredictable environments. And in complex organizations like aircraft carriers and nuclear power plants, system failure is always a risk.

While best practices can help organizations avoid significant failures, small process failures are inevitable. Considering them as evil is a misunderstanding of how complex systems work; it’s counterproductive. Avoiding consequential losses means quickly identifying and correcting small failures.

Learning to Embrace Errors 

Everyone experiences failure, and often, the fear of failure hinders success. Traditionally, failure has been seen as a negative thing, but in reality, the best failures are great learning experiences.

From business leaders to celebrities, successful people learn from their mistakes. You can learn valuable lessons from past failures by being open-minded and permitting yourself to make mistakes. Our past failures are part of the learning experience, so embrace them!

How can you change your thought process about failure? Achieving our full human potential means we are inevitably bound to fail. But instead of wallowing, try courage. Instead of self-pity, test courage. Instead of defeat, try persistence.

Learning to fail can help build mental resilience, one step at a time. And with solid mental strength, you can unlock your full potential and achieve your dreams.