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Now that might be a little depressing if we take the word failure too seriously, couldnt it? The thought of a sequence of failures when were just starting out would be too much for a lot of people. Theyd stop before theyd even started!
Failure is not as popular as it's going to be, is it? Failure, although not the desired outcome, should be celebrated at least a little, instead of stuffed into the backside of the bin under all the soggy teabags and banana peels.
Imagine how differently wed feel if we werent so bummed out about failing a test, or failing to pay a bill, or to call our mother. If we cant fail, wouldnt we be a lot extra inclined to do extra, to risk extra, to accomplish extra than if were paralyzed with fear about failing? I think so! And how about this celebrated view?
"Im not scared of failing. Im scared of living a boring life." - Ray Edwards
Now, I like that one a lot. Maybe we might just eliminate the word "failure" from all the dictionaries in the world. Then people might not reflect onconsideration on themselves failures, marriages might not be failures, or fancy cakes, or even new business ventures. They'd effectively be a large discovery alongside tips to success, about what success ISN'T! Thats splendid! Its all in the way we look at it; our perception.
"There are no failures-- just experiences and your reactions to them." - Tom Krause
Failure and success then, come when we step outside our convenience zone and risk. The risk, that gentle flutter in the tummy, that shred if anxiety that signals fear due to the unknown, is what keeps us going. Its why we wake up each morning, or it's going to be. Without it, well consistently stay the same, and I just cant risk that! Id rather fail, and fail and fail, than never risk.
So much has been written on the topic of failure, I thought it time I added my two cents. I've done a fair bit of contemplation on the subject of late; not because my life is crammed with it, but because its interesting from the perspective of human nature... and, well ok, perhaps I've had a few, too.
But theres a lesson in that, too. We must be prepared not to be successful right away, and to be strong in our pursuit of our crucial goals, but it doesnt mean we must always be relegated to forever make the exact same mistakes just that we can learn from each one, intelligently modify our efforts, and move on again until we find success.
From that perspective, isn't failure just an expected step up the ladder to success? The extra failures we have, the extra rungs on the ladder, and the higher we'll eventually climb to our loftiest goals. So failures are basically GOOD things. We WANT failures, because they're proof we're doing something, that we've taken action and that we have goals.
Failure is just half of the process of succeeding, right? Well, isn't it? When you think about it, we can't usually have success without first having failure, at least in the foremost crucial accomplishments we undertake.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." Sir Winston Churchill
Here! Here! I wish us all much failure in 2008!
