(Encore)
Failure: Use it as the Steps to Success.
Don’t sit in the rubble, use it to get higher.
This time of year we often start doing an inventory of our life. Are we happy, did we reach our goals, is this what we planned, do we have a balance in our lifestyle and activities?
Some of us may actually do the opposite and avoid the idea of assessing, because deep down, we feel we are nowhere near the life we desire. We may be disappointed with the choices we’ve made or how they played out. We may even feel like a failure.
Often, we sit in that failure as a permanent seat. We may feel doomed to give up on ever reaching any dreams, moving forward or even having hope. It’s easy to just give up and think that we are the only ones who keep failing over and over again. Especially when we have social media to make us feel like everyone else is living the life of their dreams.
You rarely hear “I tried and failed gloriously. But I am going to try something new, and keep trying till I get it right.” There are many fewer people who really do get up and try again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
That’s what really makes the difference. Not the perfect first choices, but the repeatedly trying. The persistence of getting back up again.
Training Opportunity
What if, instead of settling into failure, we took the rubble of failure as the stepping stones to new successes? Look the failure over, learn from it, turn it over, look for what worked and what didn’t. Then take that information to step up to the next training opportunity.
Think of it as a set of stairs. You don’t walk up to a flight of stairs and suddenly jump to the top. You work your way up, usually one or two steps at a time. And the more steps you climb, the stronger you become. The higher you climb, the more you see. You build one action on another.
Similarly, the more failures you have, the more you know. You build on them, one upon another. So you should be celebrating your failures. Because the only people who have never failed are the people who have never done anything new.
So today’s the day to step up and start climbing! Fail Gloriously! Then get back up and go again!