Accepting failure – moving forward positively

By Luke Chapman | Family, Kids, Top Tips, Poetry

Failure is one of life’s many ups and downs, something everyone, yes everyone, has experienced.

Failing is part of life, one that we all have to deal with, and one that rarely gets easier. The one great thing about failing is that it makes it even easier to succeed when we try again. Moving forward positively after failure allows us to develop ourselves, our skills, and our lives.

Failure comes in many forms, and the first thing to accept is that... you will fail! We all will, we all have, and we all will continue to. In many cases we can't control failure, but the one thing everyone can control is how we react and take this failure to move forward. 

"A dead-end street is a good place to turn around." Naomi Judd

Writing is an area specifically full of criticism, feedback, and trying again, just ask any editor! This doesn't mean your work is bad though, it means there's room to improve, and there always will be. No one pens a best-selling novel overnight, and no one submits a perfect piece of writing. Stephen King has sold 350 MILLION books worldwide... but his first novel was rejected THIRTY times, he even threw his novel ‘Carrie’ in the bin! Every book you read on the shelf has been critiqued, edited, and quite possibly failed a few times. A great way to find out more about this is to read the acknowledgements in the back of many books.

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end." Denis Waitley, Motivational Speaker.

Teachers, editors, even most times readers are all generally supportive, their feedback and critiques are well-intentioned and really are a great way to learn more about our work. Many authors top advice is simply just to write, write, keep writing, then write more, and they're not wrong. This is a great way to develop and learn, but at some point every writer needs help and it's the perfect time to take criticism and use it to develop. Was your poem rejected for publication? Why? Get feedback and try again, keep that feedback in mind and next time you write, incorporate it!

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” Richard Branson

Development is key and going through failure is hard, but the best thing about when you succeed is the accomplishment, the trial and error, the never surrender that you got you to your success, your well-earned and amazing success. Go get 'em!