In the saying 'Failure is the stepping stone to success', success means 'achieving the goal' and failure means 'giving up the goal'. It must be noted that failure is not 'not achieving the goal' but 'giving up the goal when you have not achieved the goal'. 'The stepping stone' can be interpreted as two interchangeable concepts. One is building success based on failure and the other is not giving up in the process of building success. The core concept is 'not giving up' in both interpretations.
Then, how would the saying 'Failure is the stepping stone to success' be applied in real life situations? First of all, it is meaningless to advise people who have already given up making efforts by saying, 'Failure is the stepping stone to success.' They would not accept the advice or show any interest. The saying can only be applied to people who have failed to achieve their goal but have not given up yet and are still making efforts.
Your life cannot be judged for success or failure at some point in the middle of life since life covers the whole period from birth till death, and you may experience both success and failure repeatedly in the course of your life. Whether your life is success or failure can be determined only at the very last moment of your life. For most people, they are still in the process of pursuing success experiencing both successful and unsuccessful moments. If you have lived making efforts to achieve goals and have not given up, you are considered to have lived a successful life so far.
You may set many goals as you proceed in life. Each goal can be achieved or failed. Failure in one goal in life does not mean that your whole life is failure. You can always try again or set another goal and make efforts. The same logic applies to success. Achieving one goal in life does not mean that your whole life is success. You must come up with another goal as soon as you achieve one goal. A case of success and a case of failure must be treated identically and cannot be taken as the indicator for success or failure of your whole life since you still have many years left to be lived. When you conclude that your life is failure only referring to one case of failure, you may give up and cannot take advantage of the experience of failure to achieve the next goal.
The saying, 'failure is the stepping stone to success' means we can learn through failure. It is also similar to the concept of trial and error. Trial and error is the concept that includes the whole process of making efforts, experiencing failure, and achieving the goal. In this sense, failure is part of success. We learn how to overcome difficulties and not make the same mistakes again through trial and error.
Since learning is made only through direct experiences, it builds unique strategies and methods that belong only to you. If you have not achieved your goal, it indicates that you have not fully developed strategies and metnods for success and it does not mean that you have failed in life. All throughout the lifetime, we are supposed to make efforts for another goal when we have failed in one goal.
Failure is a driving force for success for people who make efforts for success. However, if you keep failing no matter how hard you try, you can check for the following mistakes.
- You have only very short term goals, which are right in front of you.
- You try to avoid disappointment by not admitting your failure.
- You blame other people or the environment for your failure
- You try to take advantage of other people to achieve your goal.
- You are dependent on other people.
The process of self-checking is also a part of trial and error. You will repeat only failure if you try to take only success without analyzing failure. You must never give up and always reflect upon your past ideas and actions. Also, you cannot achieve success in a true sense when you blame, depend upon, or take advantage of others. Success employing such distorted methods will have destructive influence on yourself, other people, and the society.
We always pursue success and experience failure within human relationships. You may feel difficulties when you recognize that you are falling behind compared with other people and you have not achieved as much as other people. It is crucial to set a clear goal of your own making, and make sure what role you want to serve in the society to maintain healthy psychology in the process of pursuing success.
When you accurately understand the concept of 'Failure is the stepping stone to success', you can not only reflect upon yourself but also inform other people of the concept. Directly helping other people when they repeat failure can cause them to stay in failure by developing dependency. You can simply let them know about the concept of trial and error and the possibility of success, and encourage them to have faith and hope in themselves.
When you succeed from only one try or experience only success in a row, you may not learn how to overcome difficulties and maneuver your life through wind and waves. True happiness can be achieved when you experience success after failure in the process of trial and error. Many people are looking for only success and do not want to experience failure, but success can be achieved only with involving failure and only by your own will power and effort.
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