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There's learning the easy way (from reading and the experience and wisdom of others), and there's learning the hard way (from our own failures). When you're an entrepreneur, there will probably be both.

You might think that being a lifelong learner is a strange skill for an entrepreneur. Really, it's just the opposite. The mindset of a lifelong learner is teachability. It says, "Whatever is going on, I know I can learn from it." Can you see how that attitude can change adversity into an advantage?

Learning Lessons from Setbacks

In You Can Do It Too: 20 Essential Things Every Budding Entrepreneur Should Know, Rachael Bridge discusses 20 entrepreneurs who failed in business and then went on to become multimillionaires. Each one offers some advice based on the mistakes they made.

Kim Fletcher, an adviser with Business Link in Kent, says: ‘You need to be able to detach yourself from it. If you regard failure as being something personal, you will not be able to take a step outside it and look at it dispassionately. You have to be able to say, did I make the right decision or the wrong decision? What information didn’t I have that would have helped me make a better decision that would not have taken me down this route?’

He says a vital element of being able to learn from your mistakes is analyzing the type of failure you experienced so you can find out the reason for it. Normally, on closer inspection, it will be obvious what caused it. ‘Is it a failure because you lost money, or because you lost a customer, or because you lost a person in your business? Perhaps you were far too engaged in the technology at the expense of delivering what the customer wanted?

Daniel Ronen, an advisor from DoS UK, says the big benefit of making a mistake is that it gives you time to reflect: ‘Failure forces you to stop, look, think and act. That is the cycle everyone should be doing in business. The problem is that people are so busy doing what they are doing that they do not stop and take a hard look at what is working, what is not working and what needs to change. But with failure you are actually forced to stop what you are doing and start thinking about it again.’

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And then there are insights that can change your life. Autoletic thinking turns problems into challenges to be met and learned from. It is an approach that will change your life if you practice it.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, a remarkable book in which he discusses how our thinking can enhance our quality of life. He explains how a rich, strong, powerful person is no more in control of his consciousness than someone who is sickly, poor, weak, or oppressed. The difference is in whether he sees challenges as threats or as opportunities for action.

What he calls the autotelic self refers to someone who has the ability to translate potential threats into enjoyable challenges, and thus has an internal balance. The term autotelic self means a person who has self-contained goals. For most people, goals are shaped by biological needs and social conventions - things which are outside the self. The difference is that the autotelic self, or the person who is capable of defining things for himself, is also capable of transforming threats into non-threatening challenges. This can be done with a simple change of perspective, a shift in consciousness: that is, seeing a threat as a challenge that you can overcome. Once you can do that, the steps are simple;

Be crystal clear about the goal. Once you know exactly what the goal is, you have an understanding of what is needed to meet it. Then you can decide on a series of actions necessary to accomplish the goal.

You can modify these actions as needed in order to meet the goal.

Become involved in the activity -- This means commitment. This means action. Whether things are going your way or not, you consistently take action with the next best steps. This demands concentration, commitment, and follow through.

Pay attention to what is happening - This really means that the project becomes more important than your own feelings about what is happening. Your concentration is on the results of the project. You invest your energy in the project. You are committed, you are involved -it’s about the project, not about you.

Enjoying the experience - the autotelic self is able to set goals, develop skills, be sensitive to feedback, get involved, and look past obstacles. The benefit of learning to be an autotelic personality is that anything that happens can be a source of joy because it is a source of learning and step to the next goal. In other words, there are no failures, only learning experiences.

This approach to thinking can mean the difference between living life in fear or living life in joy. Developing autotelic thinking will give you the ability to transform random events into learning experiences that eventually result in success. Life is change - by definition and for everyone. Seeing that as a challenge to be accepted, enjoyed, and built on is the “secret” to successful living.

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INERTIA

Sometimes we put off taking action just because we don't feel enthusiastic about it. Entrepreneurs are famous for this, probably because they keep their own schedules and don't report to anyone for the most part. Sometimes, after launching a new business, the thrill is gone and they just feel bored. They need a new challenge. Successful entrepreneurs have learned to combat this feeling and maintain their excitement by taking on new projects or bigger opportunities. They find new challenges and thrive on taking risks. The only caution with this is not to overwhelm yourself and take on more than you can possibly handle.

People avoid taking actions because they let things pile up instead of having one task at a time. The solution is first to be aware that this is your problem, then decide to make a change, then prioritize the work, and take one task at a time until your tasks are finished.

LACK OF CONFIDENCE

Fear and doubt can start to overwhelm the best of us from time to time. Most of the things you fear will never happen. Here's a secret - people who are really good at moving quickly from one task to the next often do so because it’s even more stressful for them to put something off than it is to do it. You might take a lesson from them. Putting off achieving your goals by not taking action might be more painful than just going ahead and doing it.

LOW SELF-WORTH

If you have low self-esteem, you might believe that you don't deserve success. This can happen because of old negative belief systems or a traumatic past. People with low self-esteem can find all sorts of reasons or excuses not to take the first step to a better future. They can also sabotage themselves at any point along the path. If this is your problem, you're not alone. Look into this for the sake of your future. Many books and Internet forums are dedicated to this subject. Make it a priority to get to the bottom of this. You deserve not to be stuck in this place.

YOU DON'T LIKE THE WORK

Even if you like most of what you're doing and it is in line with your desired goals, you might not like every part of what you're doing. Successful people do one of two things: they go ahead and do it anyway, or they pay someone to do it for them. Also, you might still be in a job you don't like because you are afraid to leave for financial reasons. Again, you have two choices: stay in a job you don't like and find ways to make it more pleasurable, or face the fact that life is full of risk and change. You'll have to face your fears if you want a more fulfilling life.

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There's a lot you can do in your home to save energy through your choice of appliances, heating and air-conditioning, and your water tank. Buying energy-efficient appliances can save you a ton of money.

An Energy Star rated washing machine uses half the water and electricity used by less efficient models. Washing machines use about 14% of the water consumed in the home. You can save water by waiting till you have a full load of clothes to wash. Washers use 32 to 59 gallons of water for each cycle. Up to 90% of the energy used for washing clothes goes to heating the water. Here's something you might not know - the temperature of the rinse doesn't affect the cleaning of the clothes. A warm water wash and a cold rinse will work just as well as a hot water wash and a warm rinse on nearly all clothes.

An Energy Star dishwasher can reduce your energy usage by 25% and save water too. You'll save even more if you fill your dishwasher before running it and don't use the pre-rinse or the heat dry cycles.

Refrigerators with an energy Star rating can cut electricity use by 15% to 40%. Save even more energy by letting air circulate around the condenser coils in the back, by checking that the door seals are secure, and by setting the temperatures to 35 to 38°F and 0°F for the freezer. Clean the condenser coils on the back or bottom of your refrigerator at least once a year. Keep the door gasket clean to make sure the seal is not broken.

Air conditioners - if we all raise the settings of our air conditioners by 6°, we could save 190,000 barrels of oil every day. Don’t switch your air conditioner to a colder setting when you turn it on. It will cool the room any faster and it will waste energy. Clean or replace the filters once a month; otherwise the fan works harder and consumes more electricity.

Stoves/ovens - for gas stoves, an electronic ignition system will use about 40% less gas than a pilot light. The pilot light and burner should burn with a blue cone shaped flame. If the flames yellow, burners and ports are clogged and need to be cleaned.

Your local electric utility is a good source for information on energy conservation. They often provide low-cost home energy audits, and have literature that details tips about energy conservation.