What is your idea of success? A healthy view of success and failure plays an important role in the achievement of our goals. One man's failure is another man's stepping stone. Let's explore just how crucial those views really are to reaching your goals, shall we?

Success, according to society, is the positive outcome of a desire. The greatest course written on the subject of success, Law of Success by Napoleon Hill gives this meaning - "the attainment of your Definite Chief Aim without violating the rights of other people."

For example, think about those who want to lose 30 pounds. In order to be successful, reaching the desired weight (chief aim) would need to happen. The ultimate success, which is what most people are looking for when they set goals, would be reaching the desired weight goal and also maintaining their muscle mass.

Along the way to a fulfilled goal, there are many steps to be completed. Some of these steps will be made on level ground while others on rocky terrain. How we handle these steps will determine whether we reach our ultimate success or not.

Failure can be thought of as nothing more than feedback. Just look at Thomas Edison on his way to the invention of the incandescent light bulb. A reporter once asked him how he dealt with over 10,000 failures on his way to this discovery. Edison replied "What failures? I just eliminated 10,000 ways that would not produce the light, getting me that much closer to the solution."

To help better understand think of what it's like when a runner, competing in the 100-meter dash, has a goal of finishing first. When he or she doesn't quite reach the goal and comes in second, third or any place but the one that earns them the gold medal this can be thought of as failure or feedback. The athlete that sees failure is the athlete that never makes it to the gold medal. The athlete that sees this event as feedback will learn from their performance and will reach their definite chief aim of first place.

Have you ever heard of losing the battle but winning the war? We are conditioned to see any type of setback as a failure but we need to reframe our thinking and use the word feedback. This feedback changes failure into seeds of success. Every step in the journey toward our goal now becomes an opportunity for growth and improvement.  This way of thinking will move us away from the conditioned response to failure as defeat to stretching our minds to see a failure as a shortcut to success.

It should be clear by now that our plans should be fluid in nature. Goal setters should recognize that plans will need to change from time to time in order to keep us moving toward our goals. In this way, we are able to amend our final goal or choose a new path to follow to reach our goal.

For an example, the person that has a goal to lose 30 pounds in six months starts off by hiring a personal trainer. The client does not enjoy the personal trainer's coaching style and as a result is not highly motivated. At the end of the six months they are well shy of the goal. This person has to make a choice at this point; far too often the person sees this as their personal failure and will give up on their goal. The better response would be to evaluate the feedback received from this experience and hire a trainer that better matches their personality.

This time they hire a trainer that is a motivator and they enjoy their training sessions.  The result was greater intensity during training sessions and better adherence to their nutritional program. The goal was reached at the end of the six months. The first step in this goal could be categorized as a failure but, because they didn't give up and simply readjusted their steps, the goal itself was still accomplished and considered a success.