Throughout our lifetime, it is inevitable that we will run into failures. Many, many failures. As toddlers, we fell hundreds of times before we learned how to stand. And then another hundred times before we learn how to walk. Failing is a fundamental part of our growth. In fact, if we allowed our fear of falling and failing to stop us, we would have never learned how to stand and walk.

Yet along the way, many of us have started to perceive failures as a detrimental part of our growth and success. If we take a look at the grading system in our education, we label our levels of success through A+ to D-, and anything below 50% is simply an F, or a failure. We have been taught that if you fail, you fail, and there is no point in distinguishing partial success you achieve within a failing grade; 0% and 49% are still failures. And failures mean that you have to retake the course and you don’t get to advance and move forward. Failures have become bad. Failures have become discouraging.

When I compare this to the way we play games, I realize our behaviours can be VERY different. When playing games, we can enjoy failures. We can make attempts after attempts without getting discouraged by the failures. We push forward, aiming to be better every time, and we have fun doing it. Why is that?

For me, personally, I believe the magic lies in the scoreboard. The games count your wins despite your failure: percentage of completion, achievements accomplished, number of monsters killed. Our failures are measured and we are taught to acknowledge what we were able to accomplish even in this failed attempt. The game then takes it one step further, to turn our partial successes into experiences and level ups to help with our next attempt. By focusing our attention and energy on counting our wins within our failures, we allow ourselves to learn from our mistakes and keep improving our game for the next challenge.

Remember that each failure is also a partial success. Ask yourself what worked in the attempt so you can reuse the same techniques for next time. Ask yourself what didn’t work, so you can avoid making the same mistake. Count your wins and celebrate the small achievements. Keep learning from your partial successes until one day you achieve your massive success and hit your goals.

As Henry Ford said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”