41 of the most motivating, thought-provoking and helpful thoughts on failure and how to handle it

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On some days things don’t go as planned. You fall. Or fail. Or stumble.

It’s a part of a life well lived but how you look at and handle these dark or negative situations can have a huge impact on your life, success and happiness. In this week’s article I’d like to share the best advice and thoughts on failure from the past from the people who walked this earth before us (well, quite a few of them are still here and walking among us).

This is 41 of the most motivating, thought-provoking and helpful thoughts on failure and how to handle it from the past 2500 years.

1.“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” – C. S. Lewis
2.“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
3.“No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.“ – Napoleon Hill
4.“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
5.“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.” – Buddha
6.“An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.” – Charles F. Kettering
7.“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” – Confucius
8.“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
9.“When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw
10.“A man may fail many times but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” – John Burroughs
11.“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” – J.K. Rowling
12“To be wrong is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” – Confucius
13“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
14“Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.” – Virgil Thomson
15“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” – Eloise Ristad
16“Part of being a man is learning to take responsibility for your successes and for your failures. You can’t go blaming others or being jealous. Seeing somebody else’s success as your failure is a cancerous way to live.” – Kevin Bacon
17“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” – Douglas Adams
18“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden
19.“I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustrations were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.” – Anthony Robbins
20“Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.” – George Eliot
21.“A man may fall many times, but he won’t be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.” – Elmer G. Letterman
22“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
23.“What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning – and some of them many times over – what do you find? That you can swim? Well – life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!” – Alfred Adler
24.“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
25.“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
26“Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.” – Napoleon Hill
27.“You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
28.“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” – John C. Maxwell
29.“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” – Tom Krause
30.“Success isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal.” – Mike Ditka
31.“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
32.“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of a greater or equal benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
33.“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
34.“No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.” – Chris Hardwick
35.“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard
36.“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.” – Mark Twain
37.“Success builds character, failure reveals it.” – Dave Checkett
38.“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield
39.“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” – Ken Robinson
40.“Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” – Zig Ziglar
41,“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napoleon Hill

How to Live a Happy Life

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
Marcus Aurelius

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” - Abraham Lincoln

“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.” - Chinese Proverb

Saying no is often the easier way out.

When you say no you can safely stay within your comfort zone. You don’t have to fear failing or being rejected. The scary unknown and sometimes difficult change can be avoided.But if you say yes your life can expand and deepen. The yes allows you to open up your life to more happiness.

Today I would like to share 10 things that I have said yes to and that have helped me to become happier in my life.

Pick one of these that resonate the most with you and focus on making it a part of your life.



1. Being imperfect.

Trying to be perfect is setting the bar too high. It will be impossible to reach. And so you’ll lower your self-esteem. You may not feel very happy about how things are going in your life. Even though they might be going very well indeed Perfectionism is mindset that eats at you and your happiness. Saying yes to being imperfect can turn that around.

How to do it:

• Realize the costs of buying into myths of perfection. By watching too many movies, listening to too many songs and just taking in what the world is telling you it is very easy to be lulled into dreams of perfection. It sounds so good and wonderful and you want it. But in real life it clashes with reality and it can harm or possibly lead you to end relationships, jobs, projects etc. just because your expectations are out of this world. I find it very helpful to remind myself of this simple fact.
• Go for good enough. Aiming for perfection usually winds up in a project or something else very slowly or never being finished. So go for good enough instead. Don’t use it as an excuse to slack off. But simply realize that there is something called good enough and when you are there then you are finished with whatever you are doing.

2. Being you.

Not being able to be yourself, always trying to change for others or censoring yourself don’t feel good at all. It makes life feel so small and limited.

So how can you be yourself? Your environment plays a huge part.

How to do it:

• Supportive people. Spend more time with the people who support your dreams, values and you. Or are at least neutral. And spend less time with people who always criticize you or you simply aren’t a good fit for.
• Supportive and life-expanding influences outside of your everyday life. Change your environment not only close to you. Go further and spend more time with sources of information that supports your dreams and can give you information that expands and makes your life happier and more exciting. Find support from people you have never met via books, movies, blogs, forums and music. And spend less time with negative and limiting influences.

3. The things that make you come alive.

It is important to find some time and energy for the things that you feel makes you come alive.

How to do it:

• Mix it up. Try something new, even if it is just something small each week. Eat the vegetarian dish at lunch if you always eat meat. Listen to some music that isn’t your normal cup of tea. Go out to a movie, café or pub with friends if you usually stay in at night. Or vice versa. Create variation and expand your comfort zone regularly in small ways to live a happier life.
• Reconnect with what you used to love if it has fallen by the wayside. If you used to go fishing, paint or play the guitar and it really made you come alive then reconnect. Use an hour for it this week and see if it still brings you joy and makes you come alive.

4. Optimism.
Pessimism can really limit your life and bring it to a standstill. It can make it feel like there’s no point in trying because it won’t make a difference or you’ll just fail. It can create ceilings and walls made out of glass where there really are none. Saying yes a more optimistic way of thinking can on the other hand open your life up.

How to do it:

• Ask yourself optimistic questions. When you’re in what seems like a negative situation then make something better out of it by asking yourself questions that promote optimism and helps you to find solutions. Questions like: What is one thing that is positive or good about this situation? And what is the opportunity within this situation?
• Start your day off on the right foot. As mentioned in tip #2, the influences in your life can make a huge difference. So choose to spend your breakfast time with an optimistic influence like for example a book, a blog or your mom. Or talk to someone early in the day that most often supports and cheers you up like a co-worker or a friend in school.

5. Turning negative self-talk around.

It is very important to keep your motivation and your self-esteem up to live a happier life.

Your inner critic may be one of biggest obstacles standing in your way of that. If you make a mistake or fail, if someone criticizes you or if you are just getting tired then that small inner voice can become louder and louder and drag and keep you down.

It can tell you that you are stupid or lazy. That you will not succeed. That you are worse or uglier than someone else.

Being able to turn the inner critic around or to shut it up as soon as it pops up is a very helpful skill.

How to do it:

• Say stop. Simply create a stop word or stop-phrase that you say or shout in your mind whenever your critic pipes up with a distorted and self-esteem hurting thought. Say: Stop! Or: No, no, no, we are not going there again!
• Explain to yourself what this will lead to over the next year or more. As I mentioned in tip #1, reminding yourself of the cost of buying into myths of perfection is a powerful way to replace those thought habits. This works very well for other self-esteem hurting thought patterns too. Remind yourself of how the inner critic has shaped your life so far. And in your mind see the cost of letting it roam free for another year or five.

6. Saying no when you feel it is the right thing for you to do.

To have the time and energy to say yes to the most important things you have to say no to some things too.

How to do it:

• What do I truly want to focus my time and energy on? When you get an offer or an opportunity arises ask yourself this question. When you look over your schedule ask yourself this question. Think about and look at what your top priorities are and what you deep want before you say anything.
• Disarm and then state your need. It becomes easier for people to accept your no if you disarm them first. You could for example do that by honestly saying that you are flattered or that you appreciate the kind offer. Then you, for instance, add that you do not have the time for accepting and doing what they want. Or say that you do not feel that this offer is a good fit for your life right now.

7. Forgiveness.
Not clinging to the past and to the hurt that is there but to let it go and look to the now and the future is an essential thing to find more happiness in your life.

Forgiving is not always easy and can take time but there are some things that can make it a little easier.

How to do it:

• Remind yourself that you forgive for your own benefit. As long as you don’t forgive someone you are linked to that person. Your thoughts will return to the person who wronged you and what he or she did over and over again The emotional link between the two of you is so strong and inflicts much suffering in you and – as a result of your inner turmoil – most often in other people around you too. When you forgive you do not only release the other person. You set yourself free from all of that agony too.
• Make a habit of forgiving yourself. Do not just forgive others but also yourself. By forgiving yourself – instead of resenting yourself for something you did a week or 10 years ago – you make the habit of forgiveness more and more of a natural part of you. And so forgiving others becomes easier too.

8. Making someone else happy.

Making someone else happier has many benefits. The happiness spreads back to you as you see his or her face light up and as you know you did the right thing. It spreads back to you as people have a strong tendency to want to give back when you have done something good for them. And it spreads out into the world as that now happier person may spread his or her happiness to other people.

How to do it:

• Help out practically. Lend someone a hand when they are moving. Or give them a ride in your car. Or if they need information, try to find a solution by asking the people you know or via Google.
• Just listen. Sometime a friend or someone close to you may just want to vent or for someone to listen as he or she figures things out. It may not seem like much but it can be an immense help for someone who needs it. So be there fully – don’t sit there thinking about something else – and listen.

9. Openness and growth.

Saying yes to being open to the good things in life and growing as a person plays a big role when it comes to happiness. The other things in this article will help you with that. But here are two more tips that will make your journey a little easier and simpler.

How to do it:

• Change one thing at a time. Changing many things or your whole life at once sure sounds good. But willpower is something we often overestimate and everyday life tends to come in the way. So to make sure you have a much better chance of changing a habit or area of your life change just one thing at a time.
• Start small. Just say no to one small thing you don’t want to do this week. Or forgive one person for one thing. Or help and make someone happy in some small way. Take just one small step outside of your comfort zone.

10. To living your life fully despite setbacks.

When things have been standing still for while or you hit a bump in the road then it’s easy to back down. To shrink. To give in or give up. But a better way to say yes to happiness in those situations is to say yes to living your life fully.

How to do it:

• Keep going. When you fail or make a mistake don’t give up. Reconnect with optimism by using the questions further up in this article. Find inspiration from books and blogs and the people around you. Don’t beat yourself up. Instead nudge yourself back on track again.
•  Remember, it’s not too late to change your life. I didn’t really try to improve my life very much until I was 25. And many throughout the world and history have made positive changes far later in life than that. So if you want to make a change then start today. Work with what you have where you are right now. Start small and take the first step towards something new. 

A Prayer for the Lonely on Valentine’s Day

Today Am gonna write on a biblical perspective sice I know we are many and am not the only one going through this alone, If you are dreading Valentine’s Day, you are not alone. 

Every year I talk with women, read loads of emails, and even receive handwritten letters from women who are lonely in love, disappointed from unmet expectations, or simply tired of the loneliness they feel on a day designed to celebrate love.  

Whether you’re single, married, divorced, or widowed, you may feel like a woman who walks alone. But there is One who knows your heart inside and out, and knows exactly how to fill it with joy when nothing else satisfies. 

Scripture tells us Jesus, our High Priest, is one who can sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). Not only can He help us when we are being tempted because He was tempted too, but He can relate to our sorrows because He lived life on this earth, as well. And because He is God and knows us inside out (Psalm 139), I believe He also understands a broken heart, a lonely heart, and an empty heart. 

So take heart. You have a God who can meet your emotional needs because He knows you intimately and invites you to pour out your heart before Him (Psalm 62:8).  

Here is a “pour it out” prayer for the lonely on Valentine’s Day. Say it from your heart and share it with someone who needs to know she is loved.  

Lord God, You are the Creator of love and the Author of romance. It was all Your idea in the first place. And therefore, You understand more than anyone else when I feel I am lacking in what others seem to have in abundance. 

Thank You that You understand the deep desire of my heart for companionship, emotional fulfillment, and physical and emotional intimacy. You made me with a desire to be fully known and loved by another. Help me to see that You know me fully, and understand me more than any other. Comfort me with that assurance on the days when I wish I had someone physically – or emotionally – close to me. 

Even though You, Lord, can at any time change my circumstances in order to fill the void in my heart, for some reason You have chosen not to. Help me to trust You with what You are withholding from me, perhaps so I will draw closer to You and rely on You more for what I need (Psalm 84:11). Help me to trust You during the times that your “no” is protecting me from what I don’t yet see. Help me to hold onto hope that You really do have my best in mind and Your wisdom is far above mine. 

On this day that so many celebrate love, help me to celebrate Your love for me, with a deep knowledge that You love me more than any person on this earth ever will. Help me to find joy in that as I wait for Your best for me. Help me to see Your love for me in every flower that blooms, feel it in every warm ray of sunshine, hear it in every pure and right love song, and experience it in every good and perfect gift I receive (James 1:17). 

Thank You that You have searched me and You know me (Psalm 139:1) and that nothing is hidden from You. 

Lord, I love that You know all about me. And when You see desires of mine that are not fully in line with Yours, You do not toss me aside. You, instead, send friends my way to love me back to You. You send songs my way that remind me of where I need to be in my relationship with You. You send words my way that remind me that You are the One who opens Your hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing (Psalm 145:16). Lord, take any longing that lies within me that is unhealthy and replace it with a stronger desire for You. And because You tell me to “come boldly to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16, NKJV) and tell You all that is on my heart, I will not try to hide anything from You. I want to experience intimacy with You the way an honest, transparent love relationship was meant to be experienced. 

Thank You, Lord, that You see it all and You love me just the same.  

“All my longings lie open before You, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you” (Psalm 38:9). You know what I long for and what disappoints me. Comfort me on those days when I feel disappointed and hurt by what this world has to offer. Help me to remember that You are the only Perfect Love and the One I must keep my eyes upon. Thank You for Your demonstration of sacrificial love for me and remind me that no one on earth could express that kind of love toward me. You truly are the One I must seek above any other. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.