Sooner or later, we all fail at something. I have grown to learn that failure is an important part of life. It is actually necessary for personal growth through experiential learning. To never try doing new things and having new experiences is true failure. The stupid never learn from their failures. The smart do eventually learn from their failures. The wise strive for awareness through observation and to learn from the failures of others.
As a child, failure meant I did something wrong and I lost. Giving up was easy, and when I didn’t repeat something that was hard because I feared being defined by failing, that is when the true failure occurred, because I was quitting. FAILURE IS TEMPORARY. QUITTING IS FOREVER.
My old belief was that failing made me a failure. It certainly hurt my ego and made me feel stupid, especially when others around me made me feel even worse by ridiculing me or simply by NOT failing where I had. I would get jealous of their perceived successes, rather than being inspired by their journey.
Growing up and realizing that everyone fails, that we are all in the same boat called life, and that I wasn’t alone in failure, was enlightening. It helped me change my beliefs and try harder at learning more and doing the hard things, knowing that failure was a normal, expected part of the true success process, and that failing didn’t make me a failure at all, but more of a bad ass for being willing to do something difficult, over and over, until I finally got it right!
Thomas Edison failed at making the light bulb over 10,000 times before he succeeded. When he was asked about how he felt about all those, “failures,” he responded with, I DIDN’T FAIL EVEN ONCE! I SIMPLY FOUND 10,000 WAYS THAT DIDN’T WORK.
When we change the way we look at things, altering our beliefs and perspectives, we can upgrade our personal identities in empowering ways.
Failure can be and will be the most important teacher we have in our entire life. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING is a gift of the human experience. Even when others fail, we have the opportunity to learn through and from their lessons.
Some of my most valuable lessons come from learning from others what NOT to do.
Quitting need not be an option. We fail effectively by learning from our failures and keep doing things in different ways until we finally succeed. By never quitting, simply because we failed, we learn and improve and progress all along the way. This enables us to share our experiences and things we have learned, which makes us more valuable.
EVERYTHING is feedback. This life experience provides a real-time data stream that CONSTANTLY feeds us information, giving us the useful feedback needed to know when we must DO something different in order to experience different outcomes and results.
With this human body, and all 5 senses, scientists have projected the conclusion that there are around 40 BILLION BITS of information available to us PER SECOND. Thankfully, the Reticular Activating System (RAS) doesn’t allow us to be COMPLETELY overwhelmed by this enormous data stream, and only lets in that which is in alignment with WHAT WE THINK ABOUT AND ARE CURRENTLY FOCUSED ON.
We see life through the distortion of the filters WE choose, until we decide to let go of the programming we have received since birth and choose different meanings, beliefs, and programs.
To upgrade the filters through which we see all things, a consistent, daily practice of upgrading our perspectives really is a useful practice…
EVERYTHING is figureoutable. EVERYTHING is fixable.
When we consistently practice doing our best, our best consistently gets better.
Today’s challenge for myself: Today I will remember that failing is a part of life that was meant for my benefit. I will remember that if and when I fail at anything, that it is an opportunity to try again and again, and that makes me resilient, stronger, wiser, and more successful, than if I were to quit.
One of the most incredible, empowering, enlightening books I have ever read is called, MINDSET, by Carol Dweck. The interview on YouTube, on the show Impact Theory, is what introduced me to her. I love what she has learned and teaches others. It is a MASSIVELY impactful empowerment tool.
goodinthehead is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Follow me there, as well, for daily messages, inspiration, motivation, and reminders. Please pay it forward, and share this, and ANY message, which may empower someone you love or may care about. It is through adding value to others by sharing and spreading wisdom, that we become more valuable as individuals, and collectively, as a whole, we all become wiser.
Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.
One Reply to “March 12: The importance of Failure”