What is failure?

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and their response to failure. 

This impacts every aspect of their lives.  Failure is not a single event; it is a process that begins long before the failure.

People are too quick to isolate events in their life and label them as failures -- we need to see them in the context of the bigger picture.

Here are seven things failure is not, from John C. Maxwell's book, 'Failing Forward: Turning mistakes into stepping stones for success.':

Failure is not avoidable -- humans are bound to fail sooner or later.

Failure is not an event, but a process.  Success is not a destination -- it is the journey you take and what you do day-to-day -- success is a process, and so is failure.

Failure is not objective. You are the only person who can label your actions a failure.

Failure is not the enemy -- it takes adversity to achieve success. Consider failure as fertilizer.

Failure is not irreversible.

Failure is not a stigma -- failures are not permanent markers. Make each failure a step to success.

Failure is not final -- failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success and if we learn to embrace that new definition of failure, then we can move ahead.