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15 Life Lessons to Learn From Your Most Epic Fails

15 Life Lessons to Learn From Your Most Epic Fails


Do you have epic fails in your life that have defined you? Sadly, you will continue to err–as you are human. While you may want to beat yourself up and scream at mistakes, your disappointments provide you the chance for one of the greatest lessons.

Failure is all around you. From raising children to working a job, you make mistakes every day. A young toddler even fails at things too. How many times have you told your infant not to touch the stove?

It wasn’t until they touch the stove and feel the scorching pain that they realize they’ve made a horrible error. However, the burn will go away, but the pain they experienced will teach them a lesson.

Your life is remarkably like that of a toddler. You’re going through life learning as you go. Did you know that the fear of failure can often be more traumatizing than the epic fails that you experience in life?

It’s natural to want to avoid things that cause you pain to develop anxiety and panic. The child who touched the hot stove might be so scared of getting burnt again that they won’t come within five feet of the cooker. It’s unrealistic to avoid a stove for the rest of the child’s life, and you can’t avoid living for fear of falling or getting hurt.

The Persistence of Walt Disney

Who doesn’t love Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy? Did you know that these beloved characters were a struggle to bring to the public? The Disney empire wasn’t always the thriving success it is today.

Walt was an advocate for falling down a few times and often showcased his failures as much as his successes. When people hear the name Disney, they associate it with prosperity, but few know that the legend behind this empire filed for bankruptcy.

All the pressures in life caused Disney to have a nervous breakdown. Even once his characters became a household name, he found himself without money again when he created Snow White’s story. He had to get a bank loan to get the movie off the ground.

Indeed, Disney once even told reporters that it was essential for life to kick you in the teeth a few times. Those times teach you more lessons than fame and prosperity could ever do.

Everyone has a story, even the rich and famous, who seem to have it all going for them. It’s what you do during those times of adversity that matters most.

Fifteen Enduring Life Lessons

Thinking back on the lessons you’ve learned throughout life, you can see the ones that made you and the ones that broke you. However, here are 15 things that you can learn from those experiences.

1. Humility

The epic fails you experience in life will teach you humility. Once you’ve had your ego shattered a time or two, you look for new paths and develop a greater understanding.

You will learn to right the wrong that caused you to fail, and you can go on to fulfill your dreams. There is nothing more sobering than falling a few times to make you humble.

2. Empathy

Many people have sympathy because they feel sorry for others. However, once you’ve been to rock bottom, you learn how to empathize. You can relate to others on a deeper level when you’ve been in those dark places. You will have compassion for others, and it changes your perceptions of things.

3. Resourcefulness

If everything is handed to you on a silver platter, you do not need to be resourceful. However, once your finances have tanked and you’ve been on skid row, you realize how important it is to find new resources. Desperation can lead to inspiration, and you will learn new methods to make things happen.

4. Better Coping Skills

When you’re younger, you may use alcohol as a coping method for stress. However, as you age, you learn that you must be mentally and spiritually sound for your family and career. When the emotions roll in like the ocean’s tide, you find better ways to deal with them.

You may have turned to prescription medications or alcohol in the past, you now have learned to meditate or journal to get rid of all the angst you feel.

5. Develop a New Perspective

Through your epic fails and disappointments in life, you learn how to put happiness into perspective. Being happy is a state of being and not a destination. You discover how to view things in proportion, and you understand that you can only embrace the moment.

6. Grasp Time Management

Everyone gets 24 hours a day and seven days a week. No matter who you’re or how much money you have, time is life’s biggest equalizer. When you have a few failures, you learn how to manage your time.

If you don’t learn to manage time, then it will control you. If you want efficiency and to improve your result, then you know strategies to help you manage your time more effectively.

7. Better Planning Skills

Establishing a concrete action plan to accomplish your goals is crucial to success. Failures teach you to become a better planner. You need to refine your approach and not alter your goals. By adjusting past methods and techniques, you learn how to make your dreams possible.

8. Discover New Meaning

Life’s disappointments push you to uncover new meaning. You’re compelled to ponder your motives for wanting things. Either it’s important enough for you to move forward, or it’s not that significant, and you quit and give up. You’ll look at everything quite differently after epic fails than you did before.

9. Gratitude

Sometimes the pursuit of happiness and financial gain makes you lose sight of what matters. Ask a homeless person that lives on the street how wonderful it was to have a house and a comfy bed to sleep in. Hitting rock bottom forges you to be thankful for what you have in life.

10. Financial Responsibility

Once you’ve been through bankruptcy court or been on the brink of financial ruin, you have a whole new meaning for managing your finances. You soon learn that those $5 gourmet coffees on the way to work are an extravagance that you don’t need. Your epic fails in life teaches you how to be responsible with your money.

11. Embrace Your Faith

Everyone has different faiths and beliefs, which is your right in this country. However, one thing that you will learn is how to call on your higher power in times of adversity. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, or atheist, everyone has something that they can call on for strength and help.

12. Your “Real” Friends

It’s easy to have a lot of friends when everything is going grand. However, it’s the ones that stick with you when you have no money, have lost everything, and have no status to offer them that count. You will discover who is your true friend when you walk through the darkest times, and they still stand beside you.

13. Examine Your Heart

Once you fail, you have no choice but to look inside to see what might have caused you to have these disappointments. Analyzing the inside can help you move past the things that held you back, and you can succeed in the future.

14. Money and Prestige isn’t everything

How many times have you seen a movie or TV stars focus so much of their attention on their careers and the pursuit of money that they neglected their family? Having money in the bank and a few luxuries are understandable, but some people will trade everything for fame and fortune. If you lose your family but have a bank full of money, is it worth it?

15. Change Habits

A recent study found that 45 percent of your daily behaviors are forged from habits. If you have bad habits that could be holding you back, it’s time to evaluate them and learn methods to conquer those tendencies. Additionally, when you add new, better habits to the mix, you can achieve anything you set your mind to do.

Final Thoughts: Learn From Jim Carrey About How to Move on From Epic Fails

Your life will never be perfect, nor should you expect it to be. When you stumble and fall along life’s journey, it’s all about getting up and having the courage and strength to start again. Did you know that the famous actor Jim Carrey had many failures?

He is the winner of many People’s Choice and Golden Globe awards, yet he doesn’t even have a high school education. His family was so poor he had to drop out of school at 15 to be a janitor to help with finances. Carrey struggled with depression, anxiety, and the fear of failure.

In an interview, he stated that he used positive affirmations and visualization techniques to help him achieve his goals. Carrey is an outspoken believer in the Law of Attraction–using positive energy to attract the best in life. What’s your destiny? Where do you want to go in life? Don’t let your failures define your future. Using your life lessons, you have the power to overcome.

Lifestyle

12 Life Lessons To Take Away From a Failed Relationship

12 Life Lessons To Take Away From a Failed Relationship


Not all relationships last forever, but you can learn many life lessons from a failed relationship. Sometimes, we have to meet certain people to learn important lessons; oftentimes, the wrong relationships lead us to the right person eventually.

While not everyone sticks around throughout all the chapters of our lives, we meet every person for a reason. If you’ve just gotten out of a relationship recently and feel heartbroken about it, we hope the following advice can help you move through it.

“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Marilyn Monroe

Here are 12 important life lessons to take away from a failed relationship:

failed relationship

  1. Overthinking causes more pain in the end.

At the end of the relationship, you may feel tempted to ruminate about every situation and conversation in your head so you can try to figure out where it went wrong. Of course, this is natural to some extent – when something goes awry in life, we want to dissect it so we can learn from it. However, too much analysis and overthinking just leads to misery, as you can never go back and change what happened.

While you should try to learn from what happened, you shouldn’t dwell on the past. Feel your emotions, talk about them with friends and family, and then allow yourself to move on. You only hurt yourself more when you overthink what went wrong in a failed relationship.

  1. Learn to become your own best friend.

Sometimes in relationships, we forget to love ourselves as much as we love our partner. Then, when they leave, all of our self-worth and happiness goes right out the window. If you don’t cultivate self-love, you will depend on someone outside yourself to give it to you. However, relying on someone else to accept you means that you will never feel totally fulfilled.

If you don’t feel complete within yourself, you’ll need constant validation from your partner or others. At the end of a relationship, ask yourself how much you depended on your partner for self-esteem and validation. If you feel empty without them, this makes the perfect opportunity to go deep within yourself and heal any wounds from the past. Once you become your own best friend, you’ll have even more love to give in your next relationship, and you’ll feel more whole as well.

  1. A failed relationship can teach us forgiveness.

If you felt undervalued or unloved in your last relationship, you might feel like getting revenge on your ex or blaming them for everything that went wrong. However, harboring resentment will only result in adding more stress to your life. Bottling up feelings can actually cause physical health problems as well. A 2013 study by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester found that people who bottled up feelings had a 30% higher risk of all-cause mortality and a 70% higher chance of a cancer diagnosis.

So, instead of wishing harm on your ex or trying to blame them for the failed relationship, try to forgive them instead. You’ll find that you feel much lighter by accepting what happened and choosing to forgive their mistakes. Remember also to not beat yourself up for the relationship ending and extend that forgiveness to yourself as well.

  1. Healing takes time.

You’ll go through many different emotions after a breakup. People usually experience the following emotions, in any given order:

  • anger
  • shock
  • sadness/depression
  • emptiness
  • loneliness
  • relief
  • acceptance
  • excitement

You might go through several cycles of these emotions before things start to feel normal again. Just remember to give yourself time and space to heal from the relationship. Some days you’ll feel like you’ve moved on, and others will feel like you’ve had your heart ripped from your chest. Just know that healing doesn’t happen overnight and that your feelings are totally justified.

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  1. As much as it might tempt you, don’t run back to your ex.

After breaking things off with your significant other, you will probably get rid of all the reminders of your relationship, such as old photos or keepsakes. However, the memories will linger and will tempt you into getting back with them on those lonely nights. If the relationship didn’t work out, getting back with them will only create more of the same problems you encountered before. In other words, leave the past behind you, and remember that you ended things for a reason. Wish your ex well, and feel grateful for the time you got to spend with them.

  1. Cherish the good memories and what you learned from the relationship.

While you might dwell on the person’s negative attributes and why you feel so much better without them, this will only lead to feelings of resentment. Try to think of the good times you shared with your ex as well. Just because someone no longer holds a place in our lives doesn’t mean we have to paint them in a negative light.

If you focus on the bad qualities of someone, this only lowers your frequency. However, if you can speak about your ex in a mature, respectful way, this shows you’ve moved on and have an appreciation for what you learned from your time with them.

  1. Don’t try to numb the pain.

At the end of a failed relationship, many people drown themselves in drugs, alcohol, or other unhealthy habits to cope with the pain. Or, they might just keep extremely busy, so they have no time to deal with their feelings. These harmful coping mechanisms won’t work long-term, because you’ll have to face your feelings eventually. You need to give yourself time to go through the emotions instead of creating constant distractions for your feelings.

You can move on from a relationship while also allowing yourself space to process the breakup.

break up meme

  1. Use this as an opportunity to learn more about yourself.

In a relationship, many people feel that they lose themselves since they spend so much of their time with their partner. Hobbies and even personalities can blend together until you don’t know where you end, and your partner begins.

Healthy relationships have clear boundaries, but some relationship partners experience enmeshment and codependence. In that case, the healing process will take longer as you’ll feel you need to find yourself again.

No matter if the relationship ended on good or bad terms, you could use your newfound freedom to your advantage. Figure out what you enjoy and what makes you happy, without having to depend on anyone else for it. Create your own joy in life and keep busy with hobbies that interest you.

  1. Choosing a positive outlook will help you in your recovery.

In a study of emotional distress after a breakup, researchers studied participants’ positive or negative emotions about the failed relationship. They asked participants about how often they thought about the relationship, depression, loss of self-concept, rediscovery of self-concept, negative emotional adjustment, and positive emotional adjustments.

Researchers found that participants had greater recovery if they felt positive emotions about the breakup, for example, being happy, satisfied, or relieved. The optimistic thinkers didn’t dwell on the relationship as much, had less anxiety about being single, and had fewer regrets.

  1. Take the positives from the relationship and apply it to your next one.

What went right in your last relationship? What qualities did you learn about yourself that could help your future partner feel more loved, whole, or accepted? Make sure you take time to think about what qualities you brought into your previous relationship that made it more harmonious. Just because it didn’t work out doesn’t mean you can’t learn from the positives.

  1. A failed relationship can teach you where you still need to work on yourself.

Expanding on the last point, think about what you could improve about yourself in the next relationship. Did you nag too much, set your expectations too high, or hold grudges? Give the silent treatment too often instead of communicating? Think about how you can work on yourself to become better, not only for yourself but for your future partner as well.

  1. Life doesn’t always turn out how we plan it.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons to take away from a failed relationship is that life just doesn’t always turn out how we expect it to. The solution? Don’t have any expectations at all. Just enjoy the ride and learn from every person you come in contact with; they all have something to teach you or learn from you.

failed relationshipFinal thoughts about lessons to learn from a failed relationship

Not everyone can stay in our lives forever, but not everyone is meant to. Some people come and go, but they all have lessons to teach us. You can learn important things from a failed relationship, such as forgiveness, how to become your own best friend, and how to just ride the waves of life.

If you’ve recently gotten out of a relationship, we hope these life lessons can help shift your perspective and remind you that just because a relationship failed does not mean you did. You learned and grew from it, and that’s a beautiful thing!