How to Succeed at Failure

Professor Brooks recalls an early and bitter failure in his career and confided in a friend about it.  The friend said it was no big deal.  Still, “your failure, like mine, may still feel bitter, especially if you did your best.  In the absence of easy excuses, you might look and look for explanations for your downfall that simply aren’t there,” Brooks writes. “This is a bad idea: Ruminating over a failure keeps it front and center and can lead to catastrophizing.  You might imagine a cascade of events leading to permanent ruin and misery: ‘I got fired from my job. Now no one will want to hire me, I’ll be permanently unemployed, and I might even lose my house.  My life is ruined.’”  He has some great insights if you encounter failures and setbacks in your life. 

Read more:  Arthur Brooks