The desire for perfectionism poisons your speed of success and stunts your professional development.  The need (external or internal) to always be right, to know the answer, and to be self assured in knowing the correct choice to make, creates a relentless tension in your body and mind that is exhausting.  Somewhere along the line we forgot about the merit of using failure as a tool to success. Failing has always been a natural part of human evolution. You learnt to walk by falling down as your legs tried to balance your body upright. You learnt to talk by babbling sounds as your tongue tried to replicate new sounds. You leant to write by scribbling as your hand tried to follow outlines of letters and numbers. It is through your incorrectness that you improved, created and grew. If you want to bounce back faster from pressures, setbacks and challenges - then fail faster. a. FAIL OFTEN One of my coaching clients is a Currency Trader who becomes stressed out by the information overload which paralyses him from taking timely action in his trades.   Without me having any trading experience, I explained that 'you are going to fail - and you will do it many times.  Now that you know that, get busy making mistakes so you can become better at what you do'. Expect to fail. Expect to fail often. As an individual, put less focus on your need to 'prove yourself' to others (or to yourself), and put more emphasis on developing your knowledge and skills to grow your experiential intelligence.  If you manage people, give them space to fail and learn.  Allow them to become confident in their decisions so that they will desire autonomy, instead run from it. The difference between a person who has wisdom and a person who has knowledge is that the person who has wisdom actually knows what they are talking about. b. LOVE YOURSELF, NOT YOUR FAILURES Leave the sulking to the children.  Save your tears, your self pity, your dented self esteem and your melodramas for your therapist.  Failing doesn't mean that you are a 'failure'.  It just means that you didn't get what you expected.  That's it.  Failure often has less to do with you as a person, and more to do with your actions and behaviours.  Forgive yourself for being imperfect (just in case you haven't worked that one out by now) and acknowledge the effort you have invested into reaching your goal.  c. FAIL FORWARD Don't waste the pain.   Use your failure to serve your next call, project, task, conversation, etc.   The past is dead - the only impact it has on today are the scars you pick at and the learning you look for.  Look for the wisdom and the lesson in the failure.  Be grateful that the failure is tying to keep you from staying stuck in your life, your work, and your business.   Your failures are like tiny tug boats - trying to help you move forward so that you can become that little be more tomorrow that what you have been today.   Michael Licenblat B.Sc.(Psych) is a Resilience Expert who helps people in business bounce back fast from pressure, stress and burnout in their work and life. He is a professional speaker, coach and author of three books.   To download your free special report on the ‘Seven ways to prevent yourself becoming Over-Worked, Stressed-Out, and Run-Down’, visit: http://www.BounceBackFast.com Please Note: You are welcome to use my articles in your ezine, newsletter, journal, publication, etc., on the condition that you do not change the content or the article, and that you include my contact name and website details (as written in the table/box above).