If things aren’t going so well, it’s a great time to look forward, plan out a path, and set some goals. It’s also a great time for reflection. I always like to look back at the previous year and do some accounting… and ask myself; what went right, and what went wrong? While I like to focus on the successes, it’s also good to look at what went wrong. This simple reflection is helpful for overcoming failure in life.
Failure can offer great insight.
Failure can help us change direction
Failure can offer abject proof of something that didn’t work.
Unfortunately, admitting failure is usually painful. In so many cases, it’s easier to just move on, than to actually analyze the situation and learn from it. And here is one thing that I know for sure…
If we don’t learn from our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them.
So.. on this note I decided to come up with a failure checklist.
It works very simply…
You write down and describe the failure and then you answer four questions…
1. What can we learn from this?
2. How could we have done things differently?
3. Where do we go from here?
4. What does this make possible?
Actually taking a few minutes and writing down the answers can yield some amazing results. Putting things on paper allows our mind to consolidate thoughts and come up with solutions.
To make this easier for you, I’ve created the failure checklist in a MS Word template that you can download and print out for free.
If you had some things that didn’t go so well last year, why not write them down and take a few minutes and go through the questions.To help you get started, you might want to read a couple of posts on the subject that might give you greater insight…
How to Fail Well, a guest post by Nathan Rouse
What Does This Make Possible, by Michael Hyatt
This simple exercise has given me greater clarity as I plan out my goals for the New Year. It has given me some surprising answers to some tough problems. The act of actually writing them down has allowed me to visualize the problems and come up with solutions.
Question: Do you think a sheet on overcoming failure in life will be helpful? Are there other questions that you might ask?
