3 reasons why it's okay to fail

Despite the fact that we prefer to avoid failure, you can only gain experience by doing something often. And the more things you undertake, the more likely you are to fail. But failure is not bad at all, because by blundering sometimes, you only get further in life. We list 3 reasons why it's okay to fail once in a while.

1: Failure allows your talent to grow

For years, Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck has been conducting research on learning, achievement and its relationship with failure. Her studies show that there are two ways to deal with setbacks. "Fixed thinkers" are people who prefer to focus on tasks they can already do and prefer to stay out of the "failure zone," "expansionists," on the other hand, are not afraid of a challenge and actually get motivated by doing their best. When they fail, they simply try again. By making a second or third attempt, they allow their talent to grow after a big blunder.

2: Failure increases the probability of success

Many successes have emerged from the biggest fiascos. Think of companies like Google and Philips. They operate on the principle that opposite a success story is always a failure. Because the things you did wrong before, if all goes well, you do differently later. They share this with colleagues and, precisely by seeing what went wrong, other great ideas often emerge.

3: Failure gives new insights

Things you do just can't always go perfectly. Sometimes you overlook a certain factor, or you have to react so quickly that you make the wrong choice in the stress. But all these moments when things go differently than you had anticipated and you feel it as failure, are moments when you actually achieve a small success in the field of personal development. Thanks to the failure, you approach such a similar situation differently in the future. Thus, you learn from your failure action and gain new insights that will help you in the future.

Bonus tip: What did you "forget"?

You have now made a nice list of things that you are good at and that you like. But no doubt you still have something in the back of your mind. Something you think, "Surely people don't see that as a talent?" or "But I could never make that my job, could I?" So ask yourself one last question: What didn't you write down, but did you think of? Now your list of talents is really complete!

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