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You know it, and I know it. So what are we going to do about it? (Of course, I'm talking about painting, but these principles can apply to any type of failure.)

Accept it. 

Yes, it's uncomfortable, even painful. But failure is a part of life and it happens to everyone (all the time). Mistakes, wrong decisions, accidents, fear, lack of planning, carelessness — all these and more can contribute to failure.

Take the above painting for example. When I decided to paint Sunstruck, I chose to mask out the subject and branches in order to create a dark background to emphasize the light on the bird. 

I'm still developing the "dark background" skill, but after maybe four layers of transparent color, I felt it was adequate. So I removed the masking fluid and painted the bird (which I thought was just so-so). When it came time to sign the painting, I made the rash decision to write my name in masking fluid, knowing that the sticky fluid would lift some pigment when removed.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. I now had a ghost of my signature at the bottom of an unremarkable painting.

Adapt.

I wasn't quite ready to give up. (Linda Kemp's mantra "kill it or cure it" was circling my brain.) It was time to problem-solve.

I've had a lot of experience with failure as I've been working to master the "dark background" technique. I decided my best plan would be to carefully apply another thin layer of paint all over the background, thereby smoothing the messed-up signature area. Unfortunately, I failed again: once the glaze dried, a noticeable shine was left behind (but I did fix the ghost signature!). 

Aside.

When painting very dark values in watercolor, there is a danger of putting the paint on too thick, resulting in a shiny (rather than matte) surface — the shine being caused by gum arabic binder in the paint.

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Failure is inevitable. It’s actually the best thing to happen to you ...

Get comfortable with failure, it’s part of the journey and part of the process.

But use it to always adapt, never give up. 

~Natalie Matthews

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Another attempt.
Everything is practice, remember? I showed my painting to an artist friend and explained my dilemma, along with one more (risky) idea I had to cure the shine (the new problem I had created). At this point, I had pretty much given up on the piece and already had a re-do in the works.

My friend replied that if I didn't plan to sell the piece (because I thought it wasn't good enough), why not try my idea?

Appreciate and learn from it.
My last ditch effort to cure this painting worked! Using a very soft brush loaded with water, I went over each section of the black area with a very light touch, allowing the excess to drip off the edge of the paper, taking the shine with it. It worked!

If I hadn't made the impulsive mistake with the masking fluid signature (did I really think that was going to work?), I would never have learned how to fix a completely different (and common) problem!

By then I had remembered how Matthew Bird signs his dark paintings, and I used an opaque red watercolor to write my signature. I also fine-tuned the bird until I was happy with it.

I had turned my failures into success! You can too!

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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

~William Edward Hickson

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Embrace failure!

Every painting has failures along the way, it's part of the process. Learn from it and move on!

Paint. Love. Repeat.