The gift of our failures
It was once explained to me that success and failure aren’t about getting what you want - or the absence of it. It’s about being happy.
Does whatever you’re trying to do stand in the way of your joy – or, may your happiness still permeate despite an effort you may have judged as a failure at the moment? Failure can be a productive lesson that doesn’t keep you from being happy – that’s on you.
Admittedly, I'm not nearly as physically strong since I've failed in maintaining my running practice and intense crossfit routine. Sigh. Other aspects of my life also are radically different from what I wanted to happen through many failed experiments. Yet despite this, I’m still able to access tremendous joy in my life. Go figure.
Now, we constantly have to confront the saboteur in our lives that keeps us tight in her grasp because she’d miss our company if we abandoned her. She doesn’t want us to realize our potential or commit to what’s truly important; rather, she’s the defender of the status quo and fights to keep us from what we want because she’d dearly miss the company if we moved on. And she can take just about any grain of truth and distort it into a very convincing argument against continuing on the path of purposeful change. She loves to judge our effort as a failure, hoping we'll give up.
Failure doesn’t want to paralyze us, though. Our failure aims to encourage our growth. Simply, it reveals that we need a little more practice in order to achieve what we want.
When we stay present in examining what we've learned from our failure, we can even notice joy in our lives without that thing we’re trying to accomplish. Failure helps motivate us to keep moving – or, reminding us to stay still for awhile to observe what we've learned. Staying with the result of things not going your way is often the best action you can take to get over yourself and move ahead. And I can tell you that it's a fool’s errand to avoid failure if you’re seeking any change in your life. I encourage you to accept failure into your life - it's a sweet, productive guide who doesn't stand in the way of your joy – but rather, adds perspective and valuable growth.
