All this week, I’m sharing excerpts from a book I published a few years ago. It’s called The Artist’s Suitcase: 26 Essentials for the Creative Journey. It’s a short, fun read for all kinds of artists, particularly for writers.

Quick note: I reference being a college professor. Although I’m a full-time ghostwriter and author coach now, back when I wrote the book, I was a prof.

Here’s today’s excerpt from the chapter, “F is for Failure.”

One time a student sent me an email that said, “The take-home exam has the answer key on the back of it. Did you mean to do that?”

Oops. Professor fail.

We all make mistakes. Sometimes it’s messing up a take-home exam, and other times it’s more serious.

Once, I advised a music student who had taken a part-time youth ministry position. He served in the position for two years even though he didn’t enjoy it. He was angry with himself and felt like he had wasted two years of his life. I told him that I didn’t see it as a failure; it was actually a blessing to have so much clarity on what you shouldn’t be doing.

It’s hard to look at failure and see it as something positive. But with the right perspective, a failure can become a stepping-stone to success by following these four steps:

1. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s easy to feel bad about yourself when you mess up, but it doesn’t help you move toward your goals. It only drives you further into negative thoughts and actions. When you fail, respond with thinking and reason rather than just emotion.
2. Figure out what went wrong. Why did you fail? What thoughts or feelings led to the failure? Were there any habits that contributed to the problem? See if you can pinpoint what happened.
3. Develop a plan for success. What do you need to do now? What’s your strategy? Have you ever heard the saying, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail?” A plan will help you stay on track and give you a better chance of avoiding the mistakes that led to the failure in the first place.
4. Link arms with others. You will be much more successful with the help of others than you are by yourself. Are you involved in a small group or support team of some kind?
5. S. Lewis said, “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”

Failing at something doesn’t mean you’re a failure. You can make mistakes, you can fail, you can take a two-year detour, but you’re only a failure when you stop learning. So, keep reaching, keep growing, keep pressing on. If you approach your failures correctly, you will find that they are stepping-stones to greater things.