Focusing on the negative emotions of failures can help you make better decisions in tasks related and unrelated to the original failed task.

It’s important to embrace the negative emotions that come with certain failures, as this could help you do better in the future and avoid additional failures.

It’s better to focus on how you can improve in the future than the negative emotions associated with a perceived failure.

People who avoid focusing on the negative emotions associated with failure report being happier overall, but tend not to learn from their mistakes.

“Academics and the mainstream media tend to offer a simple solution: Don’t let it get to you and think about how things could have been worse.” ( Paragraph 2)

“Those who had focused on their failure — rather than dwelling on how they felt — tended to have defensive responses: ‘I didn’t care much about this anyway’” ( Paragraph 14)

“Perhaps when you reflect on how bad you feel after failing, it motivates you to avoid experiencing that feeling again.” ( Paragraph 16)

“Clearly, one-off events or inconsequential mistakes — taking the wrong turn in a foreign city or being late to a party with friends — don’t make the best candidates (hence the saying ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’).” ( Paragraph 20)

They explore why people often don’t learn from the mistakes that they make.

They discuss the benefits of remaining positive in the face of failure.

They explore how people are typically encouraged to deal with failure.

They emphasize how normal it is to experience failure at some point in your life.