Recovery is as important as it is difficult. I’m not talking about recovery from a workout (though, that is important and difficult, too.)
I’m talking about recovery from a failure. You put in so much work and the project flopped, or the client rejected your work, or your proposal was shut down by the bosses.
The great ones don’t blame or shift focus. There is always something you could have done differently that might have dramatically affected the outcome.
Every competitive person must have an ego and an understanding of his own value and skill. This makes the losses even more difficult to take. Failures are a real-world repudiation of your heightened sense of importance and a reminder that you must get even better.
To recover from failures, we must learn to put them out of mind. The best way to put them out of mind is by learning from them.
Learn to forget the failure, but not before you re-examine why you lost and how you lost. The great ones are able to humble themselves and learn before re-establishing the confidence that makes them so great.
Accept the failure as your own. Learn from the failure by examining it. Forget the failure altogether. There is no failure where a failure is turned into a learning experience.
I do not lose. Either I win, or I learn.