The Positive Role of Failures in Mental Health

By Claudia Simone Ene

Do you remember a moment in your life when you failed? Do you remember how bad it hurt not achieving what you wished and planned for? Did you take the failure as a lesson or did you suffer without thinking about what you did wrong this time, so you can do better next time?

We live in a fast-paced world and because nowadays, image is so important, we only show the good things from our lives and we get inspired by people who only look successful. Because not so many people speak about their struggles and failures before becoming prosperous, most of us are inclined to see only the positive in everything, while negative moments can have huge impacts on our mental health. Before their achievements, many successful people have experienced failing and you might find it interesting and inspiring to read about their stories. Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Darwin are only a few people who have made history through their success after failure and have become symbols for their achievements.

Failures occur in everyone’s lives no matter if they are rich or poor, popular or normal people, male or female, young or old. And they influence individuals in different ways, because not accomplishing objectives, can be exhausting at a point. Failures can affect the mental health and according to studies, people and businesses fail from the beginning of their projects. The only real problem is that they don’t learn from the mistakes and most of them quit without knowing the taste of success.

What if we start looking at failures as lessons? What if we start reading and listening about people`s real experiences? What if we take the last deception and transform it into an accomplishment?

I strongly agree that failure is not about the negative side of a dream, it is about learning and improving ourselves. It is a chance to start again and make things better. Failure is about believing so much in your idea, that you never give up until you remodel it into a reality. It is about being strong to accept your mistakes and not repeat it again in the future. And more than this, failure is about knowing yourself, your strengths and weaknesses and move forward after learning the lesson. It is about changing your perspective and your mindset towards a winner attitude. Failing is nothing less than an opportunity to make you stronger.

Seeing failure as a positive or negative thing is a matter of perspective and it depends on each of us. You can either choose to see the good in every deception and learn from it, or you can see how bad things happened and give up. But for your mental health, it is preferred to train your mind to see the good in every failure, to observe what you can change and try again. Because there is nothing more motivating and encouraging than transforming your misstep into success.

For a good level of mental health, it is suggested to take into consideration the positive aspects of failures and if you find yourself in a situation where you can not see the good after a failing, I suggest you there always something good in it.

One of the positive roles of failures in mental health is that a defeat can teach you the lesson of persistence. All the successful persons have failed, and they have learned how to continue after the defeat with perseverance and they overcome their fears and obstacles. They did not give up, they continued, and they obtained what they wished for at the beginning, or maybe something more than this.

Another positive role of failure in mental health is that is teaching you the lesson of confidence. Because the deepest determination comes from struggle and not from immediate success, failure can offer you more confidence in time by experimenting different moments which change the way you think and act.

Failure is forcing you to become better and more determinate, changing you in a wiser person, with more experience and stories to inspire others. You learn how to handle such situations in the future, you can advice a friend who is having the same problem or you can just change a habit into a powerful tool on your way to victory.

For a good mental health, I believe we should learn to accept failures in our way to success and enjoy the fact that we can gain experience so we can enhance our strategies and perspectives. We should start believing in failures as lessons and more than this, we should understand that nothing worth will come without failing. Just open your heart and mind and embrace the defeat as a new opportunity to personal growth and you will be surprised how the positivity of failure can change your mental health and so your life and future.