We use resumes to showcase the very best of our professional history – our skills, our contributions, what sets us apart. But because our resumes are meant to highlight our successes, they leave out a very important part of personal and professional growth – failure.

On the most basic level, all learning comes from failure. Failure is where change happens; it is where we learn life’s biggest lessons. It is in our failures that we experience the most growth.

Enter the Failure Resume – first conceived by Melanie Stefan in an article published in Nature. She advises us to make a “CV of Failures” as a way to remind ourselves to shake off failure and keep going.

On the surface, looking at our own failures can be uncomfortable; however, you may be surprised to find it working in the opposite way. A failure resume is a great way to learn how you succeed. 

There is no set formula for writing a Failure Resume, but here are a few tips to make one that will be as useful and relevant as possible –

• Mirror the format of your accomplishment-based resume. For each success you list on your standard resume, add the times you failed before you achieved success – this will give you perspective into your successes.

• Organize your list and, for each of your failures, try and identify the reasons you did not succeed – were you unprepared? not provided with resources? overestimated your knowledge or skill? – asking these questions will give you insight into your failures.

• Finally, you can also try and put a positive spin on each of your failures. What were the trade offs, what opportunities were uncovered, what insights about you does the failure reveal?

When you have everything written down –  the good, the bad, and the ugly – you can use it in any of these ways – (1) develop strategies to avoid making the same mistakes in the future (2) recognize your failures as a way to remember how far you have come, (3) learn to overcome similar failures in the future, or (4) share and help others.

Success is important, but identifying your failures can be a more productive way to understand the ways you’ve grown in your career. One of the biggest failures is not taking the time to learn from both our professional life and personal failures.