Are you in a place of starting fresh? Maybe you’ve just graduated with a degree and it’s time to put your education to work. Maybe COVID took your life on an unexpected detour and now you’re plotting a new course. Or maybe you’ve finally said, “Enough is enough” and you are redefining yourself and your future, taking control, taking some risks and doing something you’ve never done before. Wherever you’re at, starting something new takes hard work and a lot of nerve. 

Here are some things to remember as your career moves you ahead. 

Failure Isn’t an End

Whether you’re just going through the interview process or you’re already working in your new venture, your posture and perspective toward times things didn’t go according to plan will determine a lot about your future. 

Many times during an interview, talking about a time you were fired from a job or a time you failed at a task can feel intimidating. But the reality is this: Nobody is immune from failure. Nobody who has accomplished anything has a story with a 100% success rate. Quite the contrary. Instead, the more you can talk about the times you’ve missed the mark through the lens of what you’ve learned and how you’re different because of it, the more relevant you’ll be in that interview. 

Bringing that same perspective into the actual execution of your tasks at your new job or in your new company has an equal benefit. Don’t waste any of the missteps from your past. Don’t perform the tasks at your current job without applying the lessons from your past jobs. 

So What’s Your Job?

Think about your biggest professional failure and find the win. Extract the lessons you learned. Even take time to do it with a pen and paper. Discover the benefits to your life because of those things that you’ve always just looked at as a negative experience. Decide how you’ll talk about those lessons and their benefits and how you’ll live both personally and professionally because of them. 

Failure isn’t an end. If it is, then nobody has a prayer of moving ahead. Failure is a reality for everyone. But what isn’t a reality for everyone is turning it into something that makes you better at the job in front of you. 

So as your new adventure awaits, take the lessons of your past adventures with you. 

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