Celebrate Failures: Life is not always about Successes

Most of us have seen the last scene of Kota Factory (a popular TVF series), season 2, where Jeetu Bhaiya is seen celebrating the failure of his students. Taking relevance from what Jeetu Bhaiya did in the scene, we must actually try to celebrate failures rather than feeling worthless. As awkward as it may sound to people who were an inch closer to achieving their goals but have failed to cross the line, it is not the reason to make you feel “worthless” at any cost!

The graph of life consists of both failures and successes and people who aim higher must also be prepared to face the challenges and roadblocks that come their way during their journey. That of course does not mean you are not permitted to feel sad; of course, when you put your efforts into something, you expect positive results in return! But the fine line between our performance and the result is our destiny that is not in our hands!

Hard work doesn’t ALWAYS matter; sounds weird eh?

We have seen or heard enough motivational speeches where they say that there is no substitute for hard work or that hard work will always bear positive results! Well, I must say a positive approach to life is good but when that leads to only expecting positive results from life, it turns into an illusion!

If it was hard work that always garnered results then don’t you think the laborers who are into construction work do much more hard work than many of us who are tagged “successful” by society already? Or the student who scored just a few marks less than the cutoff of an entrance exam he was preparing for a long time did not work hard enough? Hard work is never the ONLY ingredient to achieve success, consistency is!

There might be many failures in your life, and each one of us faces failure at some point in our lives. Be it a superstar celebrity or a billionaire, failure is evident in the path of success of all but only their success is highlighted! Even if you work hard, even if you put all your time and effort into something, and even if you do everything with all your heart, you can still face failure; sad but a fact!

Then, does it mean you would stop trying or you would not give your heart and soul into something that you aspire for? NO! With hard work, you need to be consistent and have faith in your abilities. You must be sure of your goals and be patient till the time you achieve success. 

Change your definition of success…

Sometimes people feel worthless or have a sense of failure because they have limited their “success” around certain things. Like the aspirants who are preparing for Indian Administrative Services, one of the most difficult exams to crack in this country might have considered passing the exam as their definition of success! Or an entrepreneur who has just stepped into the world of business has limited his/her success to making a certain amount of money per month and thought that fulfilling it would perhaps make him/her successful.

When these boundaries are not crossed, people think they might have failed in life. Even if other doors open in front of them, they refuse to look at them and consider themselves losers or worthless! But is it okay to limit our successes? Like why can’t we keep the definition of success “open” always or why should we construct it within a given frame?

The aspirant might not be able to crack the exam but he/she might do well in life through other career options or the entrepreneur who is not able to reach the monthly income target might be in a position where people recognize him/her as a brand because of the product quality; aren’t these reasons enough to celebrate? Can’t we count these as successes?

Then, why limit our successes and keep feeling worthless by expecting something that is not in our hands? When you widen the range of success, you will learn to celebrate failure, because one failure leads to many learning experiences which shall help you achieve success in your upcoming journey of life. 

Vent out your emotions but plan your next move subsequently…

It is normal to feel sad when you do not get what you have worked hard for! And if you do not feel sad, it means that you have not wanted it wholeheartedly or you were not too attached to what you were doing! Feeling sad or venting out emotions after a failure is proof that you worked hard for it but the result you got was not desirable. No problem, cry as much as you can, feel sad as long as you want and take a break as well, but remember to plan your next move subsequently.

When you stop feeling sad, when all your emotions have vented out and when you are done with taking a break, get back to work again! Figure out what went wrong, understand your abilities, know your strong points and build a successful pathway around it. When you work on your strength, you will get better results and the definition of success that made you feel worthless a few months back would change inevitably! Remember, to take a pause when you feel like but never put a full stop on your journey!

Few takeaways…

The term “failure” has different meanings in different circumstances. While not being able to repay loans might make someone feel worthless, not being able to marry the girl/boy they loved might make others feel the same! And for some, not being able to earn as much money as their counterparts might make them feel like a failure as well. We must not set parameters of success as defined by society. For instance, what may seem to be a successful marriage in front of our eyes might not be as good between the spouses.

As already discussed above, constricting our definition of success would only lead us to feel worthless upon not being able to achieve what we aspired for! But widening our vision and working on our strengths would open various pathways in our journey that would definitely lead us to a successful life. So, the next time you fail, you should probably celebrate it rather than feeling worthless and bounce back with more enthusiasm!