Failure sucks, doesn’t it? But we SO need it to grow. I have to look at failure as a red flag that shows the gap in my ability to achieve my goals. If I fail at something, it’s obvious it’s because I don’t know how do accomplish the goal. If my goal is something that has eluded me my entire life (weighing under 200 pounds), than it is likely that I’m going to fail A LOT.
I’m going to fail over and over and over again so that I can practice and learn how to equip myself to succeed. If I’m not honest about those failures, I cannot learn and grow into that gap, and, therefore, I can’t evolve or achieve my goals.
It makes so much sense in my head. But, in the actual day-to-day moments of my life, it’s much more complicated than that. I want to be good, I want to be the BEST, I want to matter and I want people to recognize that I can accomplish great things. So it doesn’t seem like being transparent about how much I’m failing is going to get me all of those things… so I protect the failure and ignore it.
As a result, no learning or growing happens. This is because my eye is on the WRONG thing. I don’t need to seek other people’s approval, praise or recognition. I need to love myself enough to fail, pick myself up and be authentic about it. Embrace the lesson. Try again. And then repeat that process for literally ETERNITY.
Think of it this way: have you seen a child pull themselves up on their feet and begin to walk? When that 1 year old tries, we clap and encourage him/her to do it… keep going, keep trying. I have NEVER seen ANYONE say to that child: “You idiot! Get up, what are you doing? Why aren’t you walking? STOP FALLING!” Yet this is how we speak to ourselves, isn’t it?
Next time you fail, think of that baby inside of you learning to walk: give him a hug, pick him back up and keep cheering while he gets better and better at walking.
Leave a Reply