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5 Influential Ways to Turn Failure Into Success

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There’s hardly a person in history that hasn’t seen failure in life. People fail in life and it hurts. It can cut them deep, leaving you with no one but your sorrows to wipe your wounds off. Usually, when we fail at something we can’t seem to see through the pain to find out why it happened.

However, failure is evolutionary – it helps us to grow, mature, and reach a deeper understanding of life as to what we want and why we want it. It is basically the real secret towards success.

Quite frankly, if you were to succeed in every endeavor, you’d become arrogant and a narcissist. Failure helps you to become a better person, expanding your mind while deepening our hearts. As much as it can hurt at times, without failure, it would be difficult to appreciate our successes.

If you have faced failure recently, it is okay. You need to believe in yourself and in the fact that failure isn’t the end of it all, it might be the right beginning. Of course, there are several ways to turn each failure into a success.

Here are 5 ways to turn your failure into success:

1. List the reasons you failed

Everyone has dreams and ambitions they want to see fulfilled when they’re striving for success. So when you fail, you need to see those reasons again. Have a look at them and think, “Do I still want this dream to be a reality”’, and if the answer is yes, do not give up. If you don’t have a strong enough reason why you need to succeed, failure will be likened to an atomic bomb, leveling your hopes and your dreams in its wake. However, when you have a strong reason, nothing will stand in your way.

2. Acknowledge your mistakes

A responsible individual will always own up to their mistakes, as it is important to acknowledge where you faltered. If you don’t own them, you can’t possibly redeem them in order to achieve success.

There’s no reason to hide the fact that you failed. Puffing your chest out and blaming others or your circumstances is a sad little charade that doesn’t last long. You don’t really have to apologize for the choices you’ve made, but you do need to recognize them as they are to avoid such choices in the future.We are product of the past but we don’t have to let our mistakes define us.

“Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.” – Dale Turner

3. Learn from your mistakes

When a person fails and tries to get over it, he may tend to ignore all the things he did that led to the failure. After reviewing your failure, acknowledge your mistakes and only then can you learn from them. As they say, “The only way to fail at failing is to learn nothing from the experience.”

This is good practice, as long as you don’t blame yourself pointlessly.  Don’t dismiss your failed experiments but learn from them. Write down and remember everything you know you could have done better because it will motivate you to improve the next time.

4. Consistency is key

Consistent action creates consistent results. You can try as hard as you want but strength doesn’t come from what you can do; rather doing the things you once thought you never could.

Whenever you let yourself fall down, you have to learn to dust yourself off, get up, and move forward. Repeat this process until you’re at the point where you wanted to see yourself. Consistency is highly undervalued yet what you do every day matters more than what you do every once in awhile. Always remember to “Try, try until you succeed.”

“Consistency for me is everything.” – Alexei Navalny

5. Don’t lose your confidence

Failure can shake anybody’s confidence. That’s completely human. But remember, confidence is your biggest asset in your daily routine which can lead you to improved mental well-being as well. Remind yourself that you have the strength to rely on and weaknesses to improve. Everybody falls down from time to time as long as they’re human. That doesn’t mean you can’t pick yourself up and run a marathon. Regaining your confidence after facing a devastating failure can be the strongest thing a person can do. If you can do that, you can do anything.

Sometimes failure keeps you stuck in your old ways and you need support to help get past your bad habits. For that matter, you need tofind someone you can rely on for support. It could be a friend or a mentor or anyone who has experienced what you’re going through presently so they can point you in the right direction. Failure is the only way you can grow and evolve, because ultimately, failure is an opportunity to do better.

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Do you often procrastinate? Are you doing it now by reading this article? If yes – awesome, continue reading.

Most of us consider procrastination the biggest troublemaker and productivity killer. You see it as a vice, consequently, you try to overcome its effects, kill the procrastination beast and cheat with all the possible means.

But what if it’s not quite so? What if procrastination can virtually lead to productivity? Have you ever thought about this aspect? Many outstanding productive people, in fact, were chronic procrastinators. How did they manage to achieve success? What tips did successful people use to beat procrastination?

Here are five unusual tips from hard-core procrastinators that will help you boost your productivity level:

1. Victor Hugo: Lock away your clothes

The author of Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and many more tremendously famous novels was beating procrastination with the most extraordinary and radical means. One episode from his life is the most illustrative here.

Hugo started writing The Hunchback of Notre Dame quite close to the deadline – in the fall of 1830. While the deadline was in February 1831. His preparation was thorough, but he did not feel like writing. Thus, he did something that didn’t leave a choice – he got naked and locked away his clothes.

The aim of all that was to avoid temptations of going outside. Hugo had nothing to wear but a shawl. And for many months, this rag (as his wife claimed) was his daily uniform. Did it work? Absolutely. He finished the book weeks before the actual deadline.

2. Gerhard Richter: Create a crisis

Gerhard Richter, world known German artist and procrastinator, got millions with his paintings. For example, Abstrakis Bild was sold for $20,802,500 at Sotheby’s.  How did he manage to procrastinate and, at the same time, complete paintings of photos, abstracts, “blur” photo paintings, and many more works of art?

It’s striking that he actually wastes time on garden and not on his paintings. In one of the interviews, Richter described his daily routines:  “I could spend my life arranging things. Weeks go by, and I don’t paint until finally I can’t stand it any longer. I get fed up. I almost don’t want to talk about it, because I don’t want to become self-conscious about it, but perhaps I create these little crises as a kind of a secret strategy to push myself.

It is a danger to wait around for an idea to occur to you. You have to find the idea.” Thus, his secret strategy to become more productive is a simple crisis.

“Chance determines our lives in important ways.” – Gerhard Richter

3. Bill Clinton: Take criticism seriously, not personally

The 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, was described as a “chronic procrastinator” by Time magazine. Could you believe that a two-time Grammy winner may be addicted to postponing? Clinton had weeks or sometimes months to make comments on the drafts of his speeches, but, eventfully, it all ended with cut-and-paste in the end.

Even his Vice President Al Gore called Clinton “punctually challenged”. However, despite all the criticism, he managed to never give up. The key secret to productivity is the way you perceive criticism, according to Bill Clinton. If you take it too personally, you won’t be able to resist the feeling of deficiency that finally leads to the inferiority complex. Therefore, keep your cool when you are criticized. Then, you have more chances to stay productive.

4. Franz Kafka: Try to wake up the night productivity

The Czech writer worked as an insurance clerk and it was the time to existential thinking. The novelist though didn’t put his ideas into action. After Kafka had been promoted, he had more time and procrastination infected him for good.

His routine day after work, as he mentioned it on one of his letters, looked like this: “Lunch till 3:30 … sleep until 7:30 … ten minutes of exercises, naked at the open window … an hour’s walk … then dinner with my family.” There is nothing about writing though. When did he actually write? Beginning from approximately 11 p.m. and continuing up to 6 a.m. Not the perfect system, for sure, but that’s was the most productive time for Kafka. It appears that he spent most of the daytime napping.

“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

5. Leonardo Da Vinci: Start several things at a time and make notes

An artist, mathematician, sculptor, writer, inventor, military engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci, is an outstanding figure in history. But despite the success he achieved, he was never focused on one thing at a time.

During his lifetime, he managed to complete only 20 paintings. The Virgin of the Rockstook him 13 years to put the final changes.  While his most illustrious work The Mona Lisa – as many as 16 years. The reason for that was his multi-tasking capacity. He was an incredibly broad-minded and all-round personality with so many genius plans. Toimprove a willpower, he had a rule book where he had more than 7,000 pages of notes.

His procrastination wasn’t already a secret for his benefactors. And some of them threatened him with bankruptcy in order to have his work done at last.

What if procrastination can be a way to extreme productivity and perfectionism? And still, you have structured procrastination as an option and a solution.

Would you use any of these tips to boost productivity flows? Comment below!

The best tricks to keep your self motivated.

I was a madman at one point in my life.

I used to wake up each morning, crazy, obsessed to succeed. I solved science problems in my mind at the mornings when my mother served me breakfast. I was dribbling a basketball in the school breaks.

When people doubted (and, sometimes, getting to the point when they insulted me), I came home and whispered to myself “we will see. we will see. Wait and we will see. Just wait...”

When I listened to motivational music, I beat myself. Not literally. But I was getting so pumped that I was hitting my chest out of the adrenaline.

You are probably thinking that I am crazy. The truth is, even now, as those memories pass my mind they all seem like madness to me.

But it is that same madness that made me beat the odds and win 6 International Science Olympiad medals, 5 National Basketball Championship gold medals and get admitted to the University of Cambridge.

Over these years, I learned that motivation consists of two facets:

THE SOURCE

You cannot be motivated if you do not have a source for that. Period.

Ask yourself this: what do you want?

What is your dream that each day when you wake up your eyes glitter with the notion of your dream.

What is it that makes you breath, that makes you eat and sleep, and LIVE!

What is it that makes you run, and when your legs are dead, crawl to the finish line?

What is that goal that you are holding in your heart which is so damn important to you that you will NEVER give up?!

Live for it…

THE FIRE

BURN!

Burn your inside with motivation. You have a dream, a notion, now all you have to do is kindle it: do activities that “make your brain” remember what you are fighting for.

1. Listen to motivational music. This can be anything in your taste. My favorite is “Lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it…”
2. Posters. I woke up each day as the wall of my room told me: “Sep 9, 2013” the date when a close person doubted me pretty bad.
3. Self-talk. Only you can get inside your head. Talk to yourself and don’t think of sounding crazy.
4. Watch motivational videos. YouTube is a great start.
5. Read posts. Realizing that you are not the only one who faced obstacles can be motivating.

BURN YOURSELF!

By Sea. 

How you can get better at small talk

1. Become a parrot - don't go telling me some people are born with the gift of gab. It's a white lie. If you want to be good at small talk, talk a lot, like a parrot. Always be ready to say something or give a comment. Yeah.
2. Watch a lot of movies and listen to a lot of music - they are great conversational topics of course! Did you see Spiderman homecoming? Oh how awful that film is.. Blah blah blah, twenty minutes and you're still talking.
3. Learn the art of elaboration - there are some awful people out there that I call the k people, whatever you ask them, how was your day?, whats up?, how are you doing?. They always say fine or okay. Don't do this, learn to elaborate your responses, input stories and give others the full detail.
4. Hang out with parrots - ah! There is no place like home with friends talking about anything and everything. So hang out with any talkative that you can find, put in that practice. They will infect you with their parroting skills.
5. Ask interesting questions - like what's the most interesting thing that happened to you today? Tell me the movie you watched that you didn't want to end? What's the Craziest idea you've ever had?
6. Have backup questions - awkward silence are stubborn bastards, they love happening so don't fight them. Prepare instead! Have 2-4 backup questions in case Mr awkward silence shows up.
7. Read a lot of books on social skills - seriously this will almost change your life.
8. DO everything you learn in the books - trust me, if you do this, your social life won't be the same

Why you need to work hard!

There are numerous proven examples:

Elon Musk - “If other people are putting 40-hour workweeks and, you’re putting in 100-hour workweeks, then, even if you’re doing the same thing, you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.”

Mukesh Ambani

Warren Buffett

Jack Ma

Mark Zuckerberg

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Usain Bolt

Mary Kom

Michael Phelps

Serena Williams

Sundar Pichai

Robert Downey Jr.

And the list goes on . .

The key takeaway is; Hard work will pay off when you work hard.

PS: Hard work ~ Perseverance
Never give up!

(Image Courtesy: Google Images)

“I would love to marry a man who likes sex” — Linda Ikeji

Famous Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, needs no introduction because she has already made a name for herself in her chosen choice of trade.

The ace blogger who has diligently put in a decade of her lifetime into the now proliferated trade of blogging, recently decided to discuss the things she requires in a man she would love to marry.

According to Linda, any man who would finally claim her heart and eventually take her to the altar must be dexterous and highly skillful at the things of the inner room.

When asked if she has been getting proposals from suitors as well as what she requires in a man she would love to marry, she dropped some interesting points.

“I’m getting quite a lot of proposals. You know people say when a woman is successful, men run away, it’s a lie, that is when they chase you the more. But unfortunately, I haven’t seen what I’m looking for. To be honest, I keep telling people, it’s not like men are scarce, it’s the type of man some of us are looking for that is scarce, if I want to marry next year I can, but he would not be the kind of man I want.

I want a man that I can look up to, someone that inspires me, someone that would push me, someone that would motivate me, somebody that has had some success in his own career path, then I can look up to him and be like “wow”, a man that teaches me and I can learn from. I’m inspired by successful people, someone like Tyler Perry, I can’t wait to meet him.

I can’t marry a poor guy, I’m being honest about it, no I can’t, he doesn’t have to be very rich but let him be successful in his own way. You may come across some successful men but there is something wrong there, so the whole package is what I’m looking for.

When I was like 30-years old, my standards were very high, extremely high, but I wasn’t looking at marrying, I was just focused on work because I’ve always been so ambitious that I wasn’t focusing on marriage or kids. I felt like I should just do what I wanted to do. It was just recently that I began to think about marriage, and to be honest, my requirements are only three now.

He must be successful, he must be a good man, in the sense that he must be supportive of me, if he tries to stifle me then I’m out. Lastly, he has to be a man that likes sex and must be very good at it”, she stated.

Best motivational speech ever

Jack Ma’s speech. The founder of Alibaba group . He grew up in communist China, failed his college entrance exam twice, was rejected from a lot of jobs including a job at KFC. Now he is the second richest man in China. His net worth is 35.4 billion USD . Some of the best quotes from his speeches are:

“No matter how tough the chase is, you should always have the dream you saw on the first day. It’ll keep you motivated and rescue you (from any weak thoughts).”

“If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.”

“Opportunity lies in the place where the complaints are.”

“You never know how much can you do in your life.”

“I don’t want to be liked. I want to be respected.”

“You need the right people with you, not the best people.”

“Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.”

His story of success was definitely a rags-to-riches one. It definitely inspires each and everyone of us to believe in ourselves and motivate ourselves to be a better version of us.