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I have been giving this word some thought.
This is another topic my daughter and I were talking about the other day as she works to find what keeps her from her goals.
She said she thinks she is afraid of failure! Sounds logical at first doesn’t it. Who isn’t in some small way afraid of failing. None of us really wants fail.
But then do we not have to define failure to know just what it is we are afraid of?
I must ask the question, If you are trying and doing something are you not succeeding? Learning? Moving ahead in your goals? Are these all not good things?
And if you are moving ahead, learning and doing then you are getting closer and closer to your goal each time. So this is a good thing.
Seth Godin had a quote on his blog a while back that said
“Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. That’s just annoying.
Persistence is having the same goal over and over.”
So if you aren’t afraid of hard work, learning, re-evaluting as you go along, and sticking to it then where does failure have a place in the learning process?
Possibly we have not taken the time to define failure in respect to what it is we want and are willing to do to get it.
I look at each phase of the process as learning. Some things propel me forward and others give me cause to rethink them and come back with another approach. All of which I consider just part of learning how to achieve the things we want.
Persistence keeps me moving forward. Working on things is sizable chunks, evaluating as I go along and open to adjusting as the need arises, so that I may reach my intended goal.
The word failure has an ominous feel to it, kind of a big dark cloud that intangibly covers a lot of things and anytime we cant go on, for what ever reason, we chalk it up to failure.
I believe the only failure in life it the failure to act. If you aren’t doing anything, then you fail by default.
Everything else is an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, to try again, to keep at it, to look at it from another angle, to persist until you get it. To learn…..
Then do we really fail? I dont think so. I believe we just need to clarify that ominous cloud we call failure and break it down so we can see clear the way for success.
By defining failure and giving it a more realistic perspective we take away its power over us to never start.
How do you define failure? Share your thoughts and fears…
