“Say to yourself: I haven’t done this before, but I’ve done other things I haven’t done before, before.” - Louis C.K.
Failure is Your Best Friend
Failure is your best friend. Just like your buddy who would call you into the room like something terrible was happening only to trip you as you ran in to save the day. He would look at you in supreme satisfaction and pain from laughing so hard as you stared in bewilderment and defeat. With his outstretched arm he'd pulled you up and hug you with brotherly love as you told him to F@&$ off in disgust. But you still loved him even though he got the better of you and secretly vowed to learn from this and not fall for his tricks again. Failure is that loving friend to teach you something important, not your worst enemy. Failure will teach you more in life than any success will. When we fail we have to readjust, reassess and reengage with new knowledge and a better understanding of the challenge we face.
Sure it feels great to succeed especially if you always do. But those that always succeed are less prepared than those that fail regularly. When you dive into your challenges and develop the mentality to get up as quick as you can after each failure you are growing the mental muscle called Perseverance.
Perseverance - the steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
Perseverance is one of the most important qualities that lead to success. Just as much as talent. Talent can be cultivated but isn’t very effective if you give up after your first failure. Perseverance is the constant relentless drive to succeed, to overcome, to win out or to finish without giving up. No excuses.
Several years ago I was not so fortunate to understand how important this characteristic was to develop. Although I had always been moderately successful at whatever I did and rarely had a give up attitude it usually was based around a self-centered and selfish mentality. I got my ass handed to me years ago with my first successfully launched business. Through circumstances that WERE under my control I let my pride get the better of me and ruin my relationship with my partner causing the folding of my company and the evaporation of my assets. At the time I took little responsibility in the outcome and spent the next 3 years in victim mentality completely destroyed and then jaded and bitter of people. My hardest fall from which it took 3 years to finally get back up, take responsibility for my choices and start walking forward again on the path to entrepreneurship. This was by and large my most difficult challenge in my career life and after defining that perseverance again it became my greatest teacher.
With mindful perseverance is how I choose to live now. I make my choices carefully and powerfully. I question whether I really want what I think I do. Then I work through my reasons why and if the desire is true I decide powerfully to commit to what I seek and that means committing to the work that it will take to get there.
We always have a choice. We always have a decision. We can wallow in our own self created victimhood for as long as we want to whine like children not taking responsibility for our life, but eventually we have to change our story from one of victim to that of owner. This is how we empower ourselves. It is ultimately our choice in the end and we only stay a failure as long as we choose to.
You hold the strength to overcome failure. You hold the key to your success. You make the choice to OWN your life and stand back up after you have fallen. Choose to DO and FALL and, I guarantee, you will eventually DO and WIN.
