"There is no failure, only feedback."

It's been noticed that when we do something that doesn't work, rather than doing something DIFFERENT, we do the same thing again, but with more effort. e.g. if the door won't open, we push it with more force. The feedback that is entering our senses is that the door won't open, it's not working- and because our mind has learnt how all doors open, it doesn't think to try a different way to open the door, it simply tries the same thing, but harder.

So, a person can be 'failing' at something because they are still doing something, participating in some behaviour, that doesn't work. E.g. people who diet without success. They try diet after diet after diet and end up staying overweight, perhaps losing weight for a while, but always putting back on. Yet they keep trying diets. What the feedback is telling them is that 'dieting doesn't work'. So they've not failed, they've just discovered that diets don't work! So perhaps they need to work on their relationship with food some other way, for example, look to reasons WHY they might be overeating, and deal with those, so that they stop doing that- and then- the feedback tells them- this works! and they lose weight.

The quote above can be very empowering when taken on board because when something doesn't work, instead of perceiving it as a failure (and letting that affect how you feel about yourself) you can simply interpret it as a signal from your mind that that thing what you're doing isn't working. So instead of keeping on doing that thing, you could try something new, something different, until the feedback tells you- YES, THIS IS WORKING!

It's similar to how successful business people operate, in fact, Thomas Edison once said (and I don't quote this verbatim), when asked 'how did you feel when you failed to make light 2,000 times' (I don't remember the exact words or figures btw but it illustrates what I'm getting at anyway) 'I didn't fail to make light 2,000 times. I just found 2,000 ways NOT to make light- 2,000 ways that don't work.' And those 2,000 ways that didn't work led him to find the one way that DID.

So, "There is no failure, only feedback" can be a powerful motivating force if one embodies it. Instead of seeing yourself or your actions as a failure, simply tell yourself 'I just discovered that that didn't work- so now I'll try something new' and if that doesn't work, it's not a failure, it's just something else you've discovered that doesn't work! It's all about learning, growth, discovery. And along the way as you isolate and eliminate what doesn't work, you are more likely to find what DOES, what WILL.

THERE IS NO FAILURE, ONLY FEEDBACK.