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Face Failure Quotes

    “One of the great mistakes in life is suffering for years because you didn’t want to feel foolish for five minutes.

    • You don’t want to apologize, so you let a relationship deteriorate.
    • You’re scared of the sting of rejection, so you don’t ask for what you want.
    • You fear people will say your idea is dumb, so you never start the business.

    Nobody likes feeling foolish, but the feeling fades quickly. The willingness to endure five minutes of discomfort turns out to be a meaningful dividing line in life.”

    James Clear

      “We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure—all your life. It’s as simple as that.”

      John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal (Page 15)

        “I find that most people who believe ‘society’ is going to judge their failures harshly are actually just surrounded by 1-2 people who judge their failures harshly—usually a friend or family member. Ultimately, you want to surround yourself with people who understand that trying and failing are a natural part of life and will encourage you to overcome mistakes. If those people aren’t around you right now, make an effort to find them and surround yourself with them as soon as possible.”

        Mark Manson

          “Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present, but those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their potential. Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life.”

          William A. McRaven, Make Your Bed (Page 63) | ★ Featured on this book list.

            “I realized that the past failures had strengthened me, taught me that no one is immune from mistakes. True leaders must learn from their failures, use the lessons to motivate themselves, and not be afraid to try again or make the next tough decision.”

            William A. McRaven, Make Your Bed (Page 54) | ★ Featured on this book list.

              “One of the great gifts of sports is learning how to fail in public. People never go to the gym because they’re scared of looking stupid, never share their writing because they’re scared of judgment, never open their heart because they’re scared of rejection. Sports train you to face your fear.”

              James Clear, Blog

                “All of us can live a much easier existence if we stopped expecting greatness and started expecting something less. At least when you expect failure in everything that you do, you start living your life doing the shit you actually want to do versus doing the shit you think will help you achieve some unpromised outcome.”

                Cole Schafer

                  “Keep ignoring feedback and life will keep teaching you the same lesson.”

                  James Clear, Blog

                    “There’s a phrase out there that says, ‘Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.’ I can’t stand that phrase. And the reason I can’t stand that phrase is because it implies two things. It implies that you can’t learn from winning. Like you win or you learn? No, you can learn a lot from winning. Success leaves clues. What it also implies, losing is some word that no one says of, ‘Oh, I didn’t lose. I learned.’ No, you lost. Own it. You lost, you got beat today, and that’s life you’re going to lose sometimes. And instead of flowering it up and saying, “No, no, I didn’t lose. I just ran out of time. I didn’t lose.” No, you lost.”

                    Justin Su’a, via Farnam Street Blog

                      “Most people, consciously or unconsciously, seek to avoid tedium, pain, and any form of adversity. They try to put themselves in places where they will face less criticism and minimize their chances of failure. You must choose to move in the opposite direction. You want to embrace negative experiences, limitations, and even pain as the perfect means of building up your skill levels and sharpening your sense of purpose.”

                      Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 34)

                        “Every creator who has engaged in the practice has a long, nearly infinite string of failures. All the ways not to start a novel, not to invent the light bulb, not to transform a relationship. Again and again, creative leaders fail. It is the foundation of our work. We fail and then we edit and then we do it again.”

                        Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 164)

                          “Do you remember, in school or early in your life, being afraid to try something because you feared you might fail at it? Most teenagers choose to fool around rather than exert themselves. Halfhearted, lazy effort gives them a ready-made excuse: ‘It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t even trying.’ As we get older, failure is not so inconsequential anymore. What’s at stake is not some arbitrary grade or intramural sports trophy, but the quality of your life and your ability to deal with the world around you.”

                          Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 25)

                          Seth Godin Quote on Facing Failure So That You Can Keep Playing (and Win)

                            “If I fail more than you do, I win.  Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing.  If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed.  The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”

                            Seth Godin

                            Beyond the Quote (121/365)

                            If you try and you fail—and you quit—you lose. If you try and you fail—and you adjust and try again—you win. The ultimate failure in life isn’t the failures we inevitably stumble upon from our trials, it’s the failure to not try (or to stop trying) at all. Without trial in life, you defer to passivity. You choose to watch rather than play. And while it’s fun to watch sometimes, playing is where all of the magic happens. Playing is the active process of interacting with your surroundings in a way that allows you to learn. When you try, your whole being makes an incalculable number of adjustments and improvements so that you can better play moving forward. You just can’t do that from the sideline.

                            Read More »Seth Godin Quote on Facing Failure So That You Can Keep Playing (and Win)

                              “Our progress is paved with mistakes, failures, and defeats, and it’s our resilience that keeps us keeping on.  Every misstep is a teacher, and not all the things and people we lose in life end up being losses.  Our obsession with winning can cost us much more than losing a healthy outlook when life doesn’t go our way.  There’s always a lesson, a nugget of wisdom or a jewel waiting when things look like they won’t be going in our favor; we just have to be willing to pay attention and do some digging if need be.  Once we remind ourselves to find opportunity in any situation, there is no loss, just learning.  Failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s a path to it.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 268)

                                “The elders were all proof that you could live a full and fulfilling life even when the weather turned stormy.  So why worry about the clouds in the forecast?  Live your life, put on a show, take a chance, give thanks for your failures along with your successes—they’re two sides of the same coin.  If we’re living longer, maybe we have an obligation to live better: wiser, kinder, more grateful and forgiving, less vengeful and covetous.  All those things make life better for everyone, but especially the person trying to live by them.  Even, I would add, when we fail in our attempts to get there.” ~ John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 231)