Why some people seem to never fail?

When was the last time you failed at work?

Some people will answer right away having fresh in mind the last time they missed a deadline, did something wrong in a presentation or couldn’t deliver a report. No matter how much experience and knowledge we have, some of the things we do won’t have the desired outcome.

Some people instead will not be able to answer this question. This is not because they never fail, but because they almost don’t have this word in their vocabulary. They approach failure in a different way and somehow they manage to concentrate on the next thing they want or need to do. These are usually the people we consider successful.

So, coming back to the first question: Why some people seem to never fail?

One of the reasons is because they have a different attitude towards failure.  

Failure is normal and we can control it

Failure is most of the times a matter of expectations and perspective. It’s up to us to consider a setback the end of the world or a phase in reaching what we want.

Instead of being frustrated about having failed, a much more constructive approach is to say: '' I couldn't succeed this time. What could I do better next time?''

Take responsibility

Blaming others will not help. This will position us in the role of the victim from which is hard to get out. As we can't control what others think or do, the only attitude that will bring us forward is to take responsibility for what happened and figure out what WE should've done differently.

Learn the lessons

It is vital that we don’t repeat the same mistakes especially in a professional context. This can only be done when we are ready to find out the factors that led to our inability to complete a project or assignment properly.

Accept the failure and ask for help if necessary

Not being successful in a situation will not take anything from what we are as a person. This is what most people don't understand and therefore will try to hide or never accept their mistakes. Overcoming our setbacks instead will make us grow and add value to our professional and personal experience.

Asking for help from our team members is a matter of trust. We need to trust that they will be willing to help. At the same time asking for their help will consolidate the trust within the team.  

Move on

The time spent thinking at our failure after realizing what we could have done differently, is a wasted time.

All the compassion of our colleagues and friends, all the bad feelings and frustrations that we have will not actually make us get out of the situation. What will bring us forward is a positive attitude and the confidence that the experience gained will make us ready for the new challenges.

''I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.'' Thomas A. Edison

About self-responsibility at workplace and insanity

Self-responsibility can be defined as the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management. 

Whether in personal life or at the workplace, when something goes wrong or it doesn't go the way we want, most of us try and find excuses or to find the people guilty for the situation. There will always be someone else or a certain context we can blame and if we can’t find anything rational, then we choose to think that we had bad luck. 

This way we move on and doing the same things we did before because we are convinced the problem was somewhere outside of us or out of our control. We hope that the people around us will do things right next time, we wait for a better context or for the good luck to come. Taking the responsibility for our actions and for our lives is not the most comfortable way, but is for sure the way to change those things in our lives that we are not happy with.

The best thing about realizing that we are responsible for what is going on in our lives is that, this implies the fact that have also the power to do something in order to change the things we don’t like. We don’t need to wait for others to do things better or for a turn of good luck. We can do something right away and it’s up to us to decide what or how we will do it.

In the workplace environment, avoiding responsibility can be easily recognized whenever we hear statements like: “We could have finished the project on time if the Accounting would've given us the right calculations” or “The meeting would have been much more successful if we had a better agenda.” Each of these statements exemplifies what it means to place blame on another member of the team, rather than working to solve the problem as a collective unit. Moreover, individuals tend also to place the blame on others for their under-performance. Affirmations like “I could have reached my objectives if I had a better training” or “I could work more effectively if my colleagues would be more organized” are examples of situations where self-responsibility is avoided. This attitude will only create unnecessary animosity among coworkers and managers and will definitely have a negative impact on the performance and motivation of the employees.

If we are honest to ourselves, we will be able to recognize all the situations in which we are shifting the responsibility for our professional mistakes or failures on external factors. This is the first step in taking personal responsibility. 

The next step is to think about what our role in that specific situation was and what we could have done differently or better. Although every one of us has different tasks to accomplish, there is always something everyone can be doing to have a more positive and progressive impact on the workplace as whole. 

The link towards positive change is to take action in order to avoid future failure or mistakes. If we are not sure exactly what would be the most important or the best thing to do, we should at least try to do something different until we will find out what is that thing that brings us where we want.

         

            Acknowledging our part of “guilt” will make us learn and act differently in the future. Otherwise, we will do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. 
This is what Albert Einstein called Insanity.