Stop failing. Succeed now || Acharya Prashant, with NIT-Silchar (2022)

Questioner (Q): My question is related to failures. I’ve been a very positive-minded person, and I’ve been trying my best to do everything that I can, give my best in everything; but I’m disappointed with myself - not disappointed with others - but with myself. Now, I feel that there’ve been a lot of failures in my life – both in personal and social life. I try hard to please people, I try to give my best in a relationship, but what I get is disappointment and dejection.

So, I don’t know how much I can recover myself, because after every time I fail, it weakens me, internally. Even if I try to stand up once again and work more, I don’t have the same spirit. So, I want to know how to tackle this issue? What approach should I take in my life to overcome these failures and succeed - both in personal and social life.

Acharya Prashant (AP): You don’t need an approach to deal with failure, you need reality. You see, you wanted to do something. If you wanted to do something, there must have been a reason, or are you just randomly pushing yourself into something? That doesn’t happen, right? If you don’t do that thing, if you don’t attempt doing that thing, you suffer. That’s the reason why you are doing that thing.

What you’re attempting is important, that’s why you are attempting it. If you don’t attempt it, you won’t feel good. If you don’t attempt it, there would be a hollow within. So, that’s your situation when you start. I’m suffering that’s why I’m acting.

Now, when you act to relieve your suffering, you push yourself into the action to relieve your suffering. The action demands a price to be paid. And the price to be paid includes failures - failures in terms of results. You wanted to do that thing a particular way, you wanted your project to take a certain form, but it doesn’t take that form; so you suffer.