Failure after success: In this article, we identify the key steps which cause failure after success and vice versa. Through this, we provide a commentary on how to deal with failure and define the journey of success. Here, we talk about success being a journey rather than a single outcome. While exploring these key elements of failure after success, we talk about the brilliant Ted Talk from Richard St John explaining why so many people succeed and then fail.
Failure after Success – Reclaiming your passion
The background for this Ted Talk is the story of a man who found success in doing what he loved and upon reaching that failed. In this, he talks about his journey of reclaiming his success mindset and values which are relevant to reaching failure after success in life. Some of his key points which can help you reclaim your success journey are identified in the summarisation below.
Why do so many people reach success and then fail?
Because we think success is a one-way street. We think that the moment we succeed, we are expected only to succeed and any failure is unacceptable.
Isn’t this a sheer lie? Success and failure are mere outcomes. They in fact go hand in hand with each other. The only true fact is that both of these are mere outcomes. Failure might be an undesirable outcome, but it is something to grow and move forward from. If you are treating success as a destination, then you’re taking a narrow view of success. More about the meaning and inspiration from failure here.
Instead, focus on the bigger picture of your dreams and vision in life. If you keep your views fixated on these larger goals, these small events just act as dots that connect together which help you with your destiny.
Relaxing when we reach success and not anticipate failure
It is not uncommon for people to celebrate when they reach success. However, success is not a one-stop junction. It needs constant revision.
If you look at your vision or your own personal journey, success and failures are normal outcomes. Instead of giving too much importance to them, treat them with passionate dispassion. In other words, success is merely another stepping stone in your journey. Once you reach a milestone, define what your next milestone needs to be. This will enable you to be consistently on top of this journey.
Change of focus from people to money
We do the things we do because of our love and passion to the cause. Sometimes along the way, priorities tend to change. Although the topic says choosing money over people, it is more about change of priorities.
There is nothing wrong with changed priorities, but you need to be mindful and conscious of the changes you’re making. You need to be convinced about the decisions you take and why your priorities have changed. If you’re comfortable, convinced about these, your mindfulness will take you to the next step.
The key point to remember however is that this can be reversed. If you think that the focus or priorities are lost, take a step back and reprioritise again. After all, success is still a journey and not a single destination.
Getting into something we don’t love just because it gives us more opportunities
This point about failure after success is an extension of the previous one. It comes back to prioritisation and what we feel are important in our journey. In fact, this line reminds me of the song from Rocky – Eye of the tiger
“Too many times it happens too fast and we change our passions for glory, don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past, you must fight just to keep them alive!”. Although your dreams change, your source of motivation and energy are your biggest allies. Even if you’ve reached failure after success and want to rebuild, your motivation plays the biggest role in rebuilding your approach.
Focussing on ourselves than the others which make it happen
Success is sometimes a collective effort. Although it takes personal effort, our network plays a massive role in defining our success. This is one of the success traps to watch out for.
Success attracts too many friends and we ought to be careful about the people we let into our lives. Not everyone will be able to help you through the journey and not every acquaintance will be your friend. Your successes are defined by your hard work, character and capabilities. Your network plays a brilliant role in bringing this out.
Keep an eye out for the people who matter to you.
Success isn’t a one-way street, it is a continuous journey
This is a reiteration of our first point. Success is not a singular occurrence, it is a continuous journey. You can’t afford to relax and retire just because you’ve succeeded. The moment you reach success, your journey changes. You may meet another failure after success or vice versa. But these continue to shape your journey forward.
But life is about continuous journey and progress. The moment you stop thinking about progress and growth, you’re already failing. Nothing will be constant and change will be the only permanent thing.
It is not about reaching success, but about sustaining it
Too many people succeed in life and the reason why we have not heard of them is that they failed to sustain it. Consistency goes a much longer way than we think.
This is perhaps the most important point in this article: Success or failure is part of our journey. The only thing which is consistent is progress. As long as you are moving forward, that’s the only thing you need to be concerned about.
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Ah Vinay, I am really wordless and speechless after reading this from you. It is the real success for my blogging career, that a good blogger like you is praising me and my blogs. Though I am only a small fish of this sea, there are so many good bloggers out here and I am simply trying to give whatever I learnt during last few years.
Thank you so much Vinay for all these appreciation. You simply made my day bro :)
I will always try to help others with whatever knowledge I do have with respect to SEO and Blogging etc.
Happy to do the referral Alok, I really do mean it :).
Amazing post ! Success–Keep Swimming, Keep swimming@Dory
Now share with me the secret to your success :-D, I need some Gyan on this :-D Keep Inspiring & getting Inspired.
Thank you Ruchi :) .. I’m trying to remember which movie this dialogue is from. It sounds so familiar and yet I’m unable to recollect ..
GM ! Its from Finding NEmo movie :-D I am updating my blog lol thanks for encouraging. btw am waiting for real gyan tips too ;-D
Morning ruchi :) .
Aah that is the one. I was wondering why it sounded so familiar!!
He he really ? People have started telling me that I talk too much of philosophy already ;) :D
Vinay I need gyan on ur success tips on blogging plz share :-D rest of philosophy gyan is needed too at my age :-D have to start thinking on spirituality :-D
Ha ha :D.. Blogging success tips, well I think Alok is doing a great job at it, you should follow his posts quite religiously. You can find the link below
http://www.inewsindia.com/
For me I think what has worked is writing as much as possible, trying to understand what people want and trying to deliver the same, trying to simplify both the language and make posts more readable, guest blogging, trying to add more value and above all just writing for the fun of it cos we really really enjoy it. I think the rest will come as a process..
PS: I am still struggling to generate more traffic on my posts. It looks like a long way ahead!
Hope these help, ALok ji will be more than happy to help out with further tips on SEO and other bits. I have found his articles extremely helpful
Ty so much for the Gyan :-D & tips & yes I am already reading & following Alok ji BLog-posts. Really his posts seems to be like Beginners-Blog-O-Pedia :-) am sure I am going to get addicted to indiblogger now :-D tc. good wishes. Now going to read all pending backlog posts on indiblogger.
Things are ever changing. And we need to change ourselves with time. That’s why we fail because we don’t want to change. :) And it is about sustaining it.
True Hemu, the only constant thing in life is change and the more we appreciate and embrace it, the closer we are to living life at the fullest and this probably what is called a successful life.
in short WOW! Way inspiring. Thank you for sharing this Vinay
Thank you Tara for wow comment :) ..
Good post Vinay and another quality video too. But I don’t know why “success, failure, reaching success and then failing, keeping success continuous, continued success in life,” is displaying at the top of your blog. Was it there from very beginning only and I noticed it today only, or it is a fault, cause I am unable to see it on other pages.
Thank you Alok, I think this is some plug in which I started using recently for the meta tags. I remember these keywords cos I used to define the meta tags for that post. I am not sure why it is showing on the front page as well, I thought and still think it should be hidden. Thanks for pointing it out, I was thinking it was showing only for me. I will see if there is a hide option or else it is a better idea to deactivate the plug in!
Very true Vinay. Please check if you used the same plugin for any other posts as well, and whether it is also showing the same or not. If it is displaying the same on other pages as well, then surely it need to deactivated and in fact deleted from your dashboard.
Thanks Alok, I shall check that soon. I think I had used this very sparingly and I was quite surprised to see the wordings used in the meta tags appear. However I did’t read much to it since I thought it was localised to me.. Now I think I will delve into it a little further and sort it :).
Yes Alok, I did check it up. It looks like it is repeating in many posts. I shall remove it today. Didn’t know it was causing such a distraction this silly thing.. Will delete it off today, I guess yaost would anyway do the meta tagging part, this things might be redundant and in the way too ..
Yes Vinay, you just need to remove it.