The words that rhyme with failure naturally are fear, shame, unworthiness, disappointment, and loss. That makes failure an ugly thing. And of course, nobody wants to fail first if there is a possibility of winning straight away.

Failure makes all of us uncomfortable, and if we had a choice, we would do away with it for good. Because we can’t, we must learn how to handle it.

I have a few things that I want to suggest to you that will help you deal better with failure.

1. Failure is a fact of life.

A person who has never failed is a person who has never lived. So don’t waste your time dwelling on or fearing something you can’t completely avoid.

I do not suggest that every failure is a necessary failure or unavoidable, I know that there are so many failures in life that we bring upon ourselves in life. Because of our poor decisions that come from our heightened emotions of fear, anger, bitterness, happiness, love, etc. In such moments, our heads aren’t thinking straight.

We may also fail when we lack all of the necessary information and facts about something, or when we lack experience and wisdom on certain topics.

I acknowledge all that could happen, but if you have lived long enough, you will agree with me that failure is a fact of life.

1. Failure does not respect anybody.

The world is not perfect, people are not perfect, and that includes you. That means failure is rampant.

People fail in marriages, parenting, business, careers, studies, competitions, and so on and so forth. Do not take it personally.

You are not an idiot, you are not unlucky, you are not untalented, and you are not ugly. You are just experiencing the imperfect world, imperfect people, and the imperfect you.

1. Failure is a lesson.

Only those who attempt to succeed fail; only those who strive for perfection fail; and only those who wish to produce excellent work fail. And only those who fail learn. And those who learn, improve, grow and progress.

Failure can be painful but helpful. It has the potential to awaken your deluded mind to reality. It can reveal something you didn’t know about your own personality or character.

It can open your eyes to something new and inspire you to be more creative, disciplined, and focused.

It can reveal an important detail that you overlooked or ignored in whatever you are working on.

It also reveals the character of the people around you.

Learn to face your failures with an open mind, a positive attitude, and a curious mind. There’s a lot that failure can teach us.

You can learn from your own failures, and you can learn from other people’s failures.

1. Failure hurts.

It is not wise to deny that failure hurts, but it is not wise to stop living a great life after you have failed.

Acknowledge the pain. If you can take responsibility, take responsibility, but life must go on.

Embrace the reality that some of the failures’ outcomes will be revocable and some irrevocable. You must learn to live with the consequences of failure in your life.

For example, you went to a party and you had too much to drink. Your friends insisted you should not drive yourself back home, but you refused, and you had your way.

On the road back home, you got involved in an accident because of your poor vision due to the influence of alcohol.

Luckily, your life was spared, but not your leg or arm. Because the impact of the accident shattered the bone in your leg or your arm, it had to be amputated.

After a full recovery, do you spend the rest of your life in self-pity or condemnation? Or you’ll learn to live with the impact of the accident that was because you drove drunk and it cost your leg.

I think the right thing to do would be to say, “I have learnt my lesson, but my great life must go on.”

So, always do your best to do the best job, to make the best decisions, and when failure happens, learn to move on.