No one likes to fail at something, but it happens sometimes. Even if you try to minimize risks, things sometimes go wrong. You may lose the prospect to a competitor. You might not get the promotion. Or you may miss an opportunity.

When setbacks occur, Michael Scott Hyatt, an author, podcaster and speaker, says you can use them as fuel for future success. It all depends on how you process the failure. If you’re going to succeed, he says you must learn to deal powerfully with failure.

In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we outline Hyatt’s top tips for turning failure to your advantage.

Recognize the failure. Hyatt says that once you acknowledge the failure, you take away its power. You can then begin to turn the setback into something positive. The problem isn’t in failing. When you try new things, you’re going to miss the mark sometimes. The problem, Hyatt says, is when you fail and then refuse to recognize it.

Own up to it. You can’t control every outcome or how other people respond. However, you can control yourself by taking responsibility when you fail. When you become fully accountable for the error, mix-up or delay, you take back control. Hyatt says you begin to realize you could have done something differently and you open the door to creating a different outcome in the future.

Accept your feelings. When you pour your heart and energy into something and it doesn’t work out, it can be painful. Let yourself feel sad and give yourself time to recover. Hyatt says that when he suffered a financial setback in the ’90s, he mourned for weeks. And he thinks the reason he bounced back relatively swiftly was because he mourned the loss so deeply.

Learn from it. Failure can be redemptive if you learn something from it, Hyatt says. You know the saying — that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. For this to be true, you have to process the setback, reflect on what you could do differently and then commit to taking different action the next time.

Change your behavior. In order to use setbacks to your advantage, you can’t keep doing the same things that led to the failure in the first place. If you do this, you’re destined for more failure, Hyatt says. You have to be willing to change.

Go all in with your next project. Failure might take the wind out of your sails, but don’t ruminate on your mistakes for long. If you wallow in your disappointment, the failure gets bigger in your mind. Instead, Hyatt recommends entering your next project whole-heartedly by putting the past behind you and moving forward.

There are always nuggets of wisdom to be found in every failure. When things don’t go your way at work or in your personal life, think about how you can use those setbacks to become stronger and smarter.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source: Michael Scott Hyatt is an author, podcaster, blogger, speaker and the CEO and founder of Michael Hyatt & Company. He has written several books about leadership, productivity and goal setting.