Michelle11/01/2017Miscellaneous0 comments

Why Do People Fail?

Failure is one word we ALL do not like to hear or use in our vocabulary. I will be the first one to say that, without ‘skipping a beat’!

Why is failure such a ‘bad’ word?

Why do we think ‘failure’ is something bad?

I will quickly remind all of us about Thomas Edison and his views on failure:

‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’

Let’s look at a few reasons why people fail, though I am sure you know that they are numerous reasons which will always be individually based. The more obvious reasons are:

Personal Habits – emotionally, spiritually
Focus
Mentality
Lazy
Lack of or no motivation
Health
Financial

These reasons are by no means the beginning and the end of this discussion. They are simply meant to shake up your awareness. Let’s examine each reason aforementioned.

HABITS

Whether we choose to believe it or not, we all fall into a routine of some sort. These routines can be a part of our social setting, parental training, or personal decision. Not all habits are conducive to help us on our life journey, though they may be necessary in some circumstances.

The importance here, when we talk about habits, is that those [habits] we choose to repeatedly infuse in our lives, should be the ones that will truly benefit whatever decisions we make, especially when we embark on creating or building our own business.

FOCUS

The word focus, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means ‘directed attention (for emphasis)’.

How often have we been told that as women, we have the gift to multi-task? Too often. But what do they tell our men? Nothing.

I am in no way saying that multi-tasking is not something that you should aspire to, however, I think that once you start multi-tasking, it reduces the amount of focus you can give to any project. It is important that whatever you start, you should keep your focus on it until you can wholeheartedly say you have given your all and then can put that ‘completed’ stamp of approval on it!

MENTALITY

Following on the heels of focus is the mentality with which we start our projects. In the world of business -whether it is a brick and mortar type or online – it is important how you choose to ‘see’ your efforts.

You should approach ANY business with a business attitude. You can’t be saying to yourself – ‘Oh, this is just a try-out (your mind will start thinking that this is nothing lasting so no big-deal)’. Yes, it might be true that this is your first attempt, but if you delve deep within yourself, you know that you want to give it your best shot and that you want desperately to succeed.

You need to have the right mental attitude.

This attitude should start with the thinking that you will:

be a ‘doer’ and not merely a ‘sayer’ – actions speak louder than words – EVERY TIME!
work hard to sustain and maintain successful results
be your own example of success – no two people’s efforts will give the same results
remember that comparing yourself to others will do very little towards building your self-confidence

Make sure that your mental attitude will steer you in the direction you choose to go and to achieve the success you imagine.

LAZINESS

Yes, being lazy is a reason for things not working out the way you anticipated or expected. You should put the effort in whatever project you undertake in order to see fruits of your labor.

Of course, there is the other side of the coin – a workaholic! This will sometimes result in not only mental burnout, stress; but physical or psychosomatic results – depression, migraines, insomnia, to name a few. The bottom-line is simply being able to balance your work ethics with your relaxation needs.

MOTIVATION

There are times when we start a project and we are all ‘fired-up’ and ‘excited’ because we have created a plan and have a vision of our goal in our mind’s eye. We start and then somewhere along the way, we lose our ‘steam’.

This could be the first obstacle that we did not foresee or the implementation of one of our plans which does not seem to be going the way we think it should. It is at this juncture that we need to reach out to others, like a mentor, who has traveled the path we have chosen. Get some advice, and get back on track. It is all a part of the ‘big picture’ – creation means flexibility, change, endurance, and perseverance.

Then, there are the times when we have no motivation. It is time to look for the reason why you started or need to start a new project. Your family, your self-actualization, your purpose in life. It gets more personal, but it will make you want to do things differently, especially when there are other people who depend on you, in more ways than one for support – emotionally, physically, financially.

HEALTH

Our health will sometimes play a role on our road to success. We might start a project and then get ‘derailed’ by poor health in the form of new illnesses, accidents, or latent genetic diseases. We all try to be healthy and yes, there will be times when we have no control over the outcome. We can only travel this road and hope that we can make the success milestone without any obstacles.

FINANCIAL

Yes, money, money, money in the rich man’s world – it gives us all an option!

I respect money and the options that it gives me. It is all a part of the mindset for success. Money should be respected. This means that you should use it wisely, save some for a ‘rainy day’ and give some away to some charitable cause. It is just the way life works – one of the laws of the universe.

The having of money will sometimes determine the start of a new project and the follow-through as well. However, there are some projects that can be jump-started with a small or no amount of money. Yet, it will sometimes be a deterrent to our success – the size of our success.

I tend to be a positive person and simply do my best and work with whatever it takes to improve my financial state [if the project I am starting needs a little more than I can get my hands on] as I forge my way to my success.

So, as you can see, with every reason, we can find a solution to clear the way to our success.

Let’s remember that being yourself is just a start to any success that you can ever hope to achieve. And it might take a few re-takes, but classify them as another way to make it better and keep moving!

Failure is NOT an option!