Its heartbreaking to hear stories of individuals committing suicide due to failure in academics, relationships, loss of significant people, unexpected life incidents, etc. Is it worthy to end your life because you assumed that failure has no option? Many times its overwhelming to see how individuals perceive failure and the strategies they choose to cope with the same. The common elements in these scenarios are fear and rejection that’s linked with self-defeat thoughts like I am not good enough, I am a failure, I am a looser(widespread usage among youngsters).

“Beautiful failures” – a book written by Lucy Clark for parents on how to help their kids to cope with the today’s pressure cooker world.The title makes me think how a failure can be beautiful. Is it an Oxymoron like an open secret, clearly confused…?? Not really, because failure can become beautiful by modifying our attitude and thinking. A personal belief that you have failed and letting yourself brood over the same thought for a while would result in breeding an atmosphere of self-doubt which then endorses the original thought that you are not good enough… “ Fear “ attached to the thought “ You are not good enough” makes you believe that it’s a truth and stops you from trying again or trying new.

Our society doesn’t celebrate defeats, but history records those who become winners after so many failures. When Edison was questioned by a reporter “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?”. He responded “I didn’t fail 1,000 times,” but “The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” The answer is the implication of Edison’s attitude and positive thinking. But it’s not that easy to accept proceed. It demands a lot of courage and mental strength and more than that, fearless attitude towards success-driven society and its opinions and a strong self-belief that failure also has an option. What are the options ?? If you perceive failure “ to err is a crucial part of Human cognition” then it becomes beautiful and makes you analyze and understand the ways of improvising and trying again. Instead, perceive the failure as the indicator of intellectual weakness then it becomes ugly and painful.

Personally, I believe, reading autobiographies of those who have succeeded in their lives for various reasons, will give a right perspective and wisdom to look at failure with right attitude than watching or reading Motivational books/ Videos which can be the next step to sustain the right approach to travel further. Lessons learned in the Past help developing a view without the element of “ fear” would make you explore the new path with more conviction and confidence. If you can understand the difference between strength zone and comfort zone, many will not fear failure.

Self Awareness is an ongoing process and helps one to identify and affirm the strengths and weaknesses. If one is not in touch with his/ her self and its potential, it makes one feel anxious or fear to move out of the comfort zone. Being aware of yourself will cause one to take calculated risks by moving out of the comfort zone. Functioning within the strength zone and out of comfort zone help finding better ways to run a purposeful life.

To make failure a beautiful one — embrace and celebrate it until you reach your stated goal using your full potential. Thus Beautiful Failure is not an Oxymoron but a secret of meaningful living.