~Maya Angelou
Failure is a part of the process of achieving
success.
I’m 41 years old. And
to be completely honest, I’ve accumulated a “sh*t-load” of poor choices and failures
in many areas of my life. From personal failures to professional failures, you
would think that clinical depression
might be my only resort, or my default source of comfort. Maybe it would be my
payment for everything I’ve done wrong, amongst the few good choices I’ve made,
and successes I’ve achieved; but no… I have a philosophy which has judiciously
worked for me and that is, “there are no such things as irrelevant failures,
all are purposeful negative outcomes … all are lessons for us to learn from.”
Yes, I have failed in
the past but guess what? I no longer live there anymore; tomorrow has come
leaving behind yesterday, while empowering me with the knowledge to move
forward.
“The road to success is always under construction”
~Lily Tomlin
My road to success through my failures…
An aikido student asked his master, “Master –
how is it that you never lose your balance?” The master replied, “I
continuously lose my balance. I just regain it faster.”
The road to success is not an easy one to traverse,
with many deterrents and pitfalls along the way. While success is worth
achieving, it certainly doesn't come easily. My road to success is a slow and steady one. I have goals that I work on
every single day, and I don’t stop and get comfortable along the way. Nothing
is easy to the point where the accomplishment of one single objective/goal will bring me the satisfaction and contentment
needed to finally say, “I’m successful, I’m happy.” I have so many goals, and I
feel (actually, I know) that the achievement of them is essential to me feeling
complete, feeling accomplished. And while I’m a work in progress on my quest to
success (personal and professional), I allow myself to acknowledge my failures
and accept them because they are life’s way of weeding out the wrong answers so
the right ones can surface.
I don’t judge myself based
on my past and my failures. I may not fully be where I want to be (and how I
want to be living my life) but I know I’ll get there someday because I’m not quitting!
Let me also bring some
clarity to my philosophy, just so that you don’t think I’m endorsing failure. When
I fail at something, I don’t jump up and down – and do the happy dance - because
I’m happy that I failed (and have gained the opportunity of another life lesson);
trust and believe. I wish all my trials would have a successful outcome on the
first run but I’m not previewed to the crystal ball of my life. I’ve simply learned
to be humbled by my failures, and put things in perspective. It reminds me that
I am only human, with human capabilities and knowledge (as the saying goes, “To
stumble is human.”). I have also come to learn and experience that failure
makes our great moments in life, our successes, that much better…
How funny is it that,
the very electricity I’m using to write this blog was a product of over 10,000
failed experiments. Thomas Edison failed so many attempts at creating something
monumental, that you would have absolutely expected him to throw in the towel,
at least after the first 1,000. There are too many examples of singers who were
passed up by record labels, only to keep pushing harder, and end up becoming
superstars. Even Michael Jordan (considered the greatest basketball player
ever), was cut by his high school team…. can you imagine!?
It’s usually the
biggest failure, let down that empowers us to seek and set ourselves into
achieving our full potential, achieving better for ourselves. It’s the ability to bounce back from
scary, stressful choices that end up being the most rewarding. Without
failure, there would be no growth, no success. But remember, failure,
just like everything in life, is meant to be learned from and then released to
the universe for a better return…
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation,
hard work, and learning from failure.”
~Colin Powell
What are your thoughts on the role of
failure and learning in success? In your success…
To looking at failure with a positive eye...
RosieSandz
