I hate failing. Seriously, I hate it. There is a competitive streak inside of me that can turn ugly real quick. I’m the person who won’t play a game with you unless I feel like I have a reasonable chance at winning. If I know I won’t win, I won’t play.

Failure Is Apart Of Life

However, failure is part of life. We all lose and fail at something and it happens more often than we would like. The year is winding down for me, so I am in the process of evaluating all the conferences I’ve attended this year. Then I came across one earlier in the year I was hoping I would never see again. It was an Acts 29 event which I really believed was going to be one of my best events of all time. I was confident in my ability to communicate, I knew the A29 crowd really well (I was apart of a church plant that was A29 and currently attend an A29 church). Then it happened. I got up on stage, with hundreds of eyes staring at me. I nailed my introduction and as I was getting ready to jump into Logos Bible Software to do a Bible study with everyone, the projector and TV screen went blank. The technology failed on me. I did my best to recover while looking frantically for the Audio/Video team for help. They got on the stage and did there best to recover the system but it wasn’t working. I got nervous and lost my train of thought. Finally, I decided that we would punt on the presentation and do it later when the technology was working. Well, about 2 hours later a massive storm was heading our way and out of safety, the majority (about 90%) of the people left early to make it back home.

There I was, in an almost empty conference center, and I had missed my chance. It was absolute failure.

Some of you can can relate. You have experienced failure in your personal or professional life. You fail to accomplish the goal you had your eyes on. Ultimately, like me, you feel defeated.

So How Do You Recover From Failure?

We have to recover from failure. We can’t live in that place of defeat because life goes on and there is so much to accomplish. Even more important, our failures don’t define us. Rather, they provide the opportunity for developing our areas of weakness. While there are multiple ways to approach the recovery process, here’s how I dealt with my failure.

Remind Myself Of Who I Am

I needed to remind myself that I am not defined by what I do, rather Christ defines me. I find my identity as a son of God (Gal 4:6), and as I remind myself of this truth minor set backs wont devastate me. Spending time in God’s Word and in prayer is so important to set my mind straight. There are devastating implications when we neglect our true identity. We can quickly find ourselves slaves to the law and longing for recognition and value as a result of what we accomplish rather than who we are in Christ.

Be Honest About The Condition Of My Heart

We need to be ok with being vulnerable to the right people. In my moment of failure, I turned to my wife and a few select friends. What was amazing is that my friends and wife pointed me to the first point, reaffirming the truth that my worth is not defined by my actions but by my identity in Christ. They were also helpful in asking some great questions to identify areas of growth and cause me to consider and think about my own development. However, they have really earned that place in my life. I don’t open this up to everyone.

Do Something Fun

Sometimes the best remedy is ordering a pizza and watching football. At a certain point it is no longer helpful to stress out or relive the moment of failure. Do yourself a favor and have fun. I have friends that literally will go to a movie by themselves. They don’t have to worry about other people, they can just find an empty corner and just enjoy a movie. Have fun, recharge, and get back out there.

Finally, don’t quit. Learn what you can from the experience, implement change, and move on.

The post How To Recover After Failure appeared first on Joel's Travels.

Possibly the most critical responsibility of any leader, is the ability and desire to lead through failure. We don’t talk about this much in business classes or ministry training programs, but this is essential to the development and future success of any leader.

Leading through failure says something about the character of a leader.

Namely, that in the most dire situation they are considerate and aware of the condition and emotion of those they lead. The experience of failure is not only a hit to the leader, but also the team collectively. As a leader looks to the condition of their team, the team feels a sense of security and assurance that in any circumstance (failure or success) they will be considered and are valued.

Failure serves as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Leading through failure provides the opportunity for the team to engage in a shared experience, though it may be challenging, can be something that causes the team to connect in a unique way. A leader that highlights and identifies those learning opportunities has the capacity to take his team to the next level. In fact the experiences of leading and following form part of the fabric of our existence. ^[1] 

The experience of failure is real life.

It grounds a leader and gives them a sense of reality. Not everything we put our minds to will result in success. While it’s important to think positively and focus on success, being naive or negligent of the possibility of failure is foolish. It set’s the leader up for shock which in turn is detrimental in his ability to lead in light of failure.

There are some incredible resources out there to help you in the study of leadership and begin to form out a strategy for you ministry or business context. However, the most vital and helpful in my opinion is the Bible. While the Bible may not give a clean cut definition or provide the four steps to success, it does something better. The Bible gives us example after example of incredibly talented and successful godly leaders. Even more helpful, we find out that all of them have some serious issues, character flaws, and insecurities that on the surface would seem to disqualify or hinder their ability to lead well. However, we find relief and hope in the fact that as believers we can hold to Colossians 2:10, “You have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority”. Therefore, the leader that puts their trust, hope, and faith in Christ will find a sense of satisfaction that is not contingent upon their success or failure but stems from who Christ is and what he has done.

^[1] Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 492.

The post 3 Reasons Leading Through Failure Matters appeared first on Joel's Travels.