Failure: A guiding force or a limiting force

The fact is we will fail at way more things than we succeed at. It is the nature of life. We try something, it doesn’t work.  We try it a different way and it doesn’t work. We keep trying until we succeed, or we move on to the new thing. That is how life is. The difference between final success or not achieving success is how we use that failure in our life. 

We should not say ‘the difference between failure and success is….’ That makes it sound like they are opposites.  It makes it sound like you are either a failure or a success. The reality is that’s not the way it works. You are a success based on how you view, learn from, and use failure. Everyone fails.  Successful people fail as much or more than those who don’t obtain success. The difference is what they do with that failure. Those who do not ultimately succeed see failure as the reason not to go on, not to give it another try. Those who achieve success see failure as a steppingstone - something to learn from - on their journey to where they are going.  

If you learn from failure and realize it’s a critical part of the life learning process, then you become better with each failure. You use failure as the path to your success. There is no other path by the way. Failure is the way.  The obstacle is the way. If you believe failure is failing, then each failure is a burden. It weighs you down. You start to use failure as evidence that you are not worthy of success, and it is not worth trying again. It is either the reason to now know how to do it, or it is the reason to quit and not do it again. 

Crazy, there is no right or wrong choice here. There is only your choice. There is only what you decide to do with each failure. There will be failure upon failure in your life. Have no doubts about it. How you choose to see those failures and how you choose to use those failures and learn from them makes the difference between ultimate success or not. 

Dr. Tim

Living Every Minute