| During my journey through life I have created significant successes, and I have also made monumental mistakes. Perhaps you have too. What I've learned from riding the roller coaster of life is to always focus on the future not the past. I've adopted the philosophy that my history is not my destiny. It's hard when we fail, but far worse to never try. No matter what happens to you remember that every experience has positive value, and every experience serves you.
Most successful people falter and fail a multitude of times before they succeed. Actually there's no real failure except when we decide to no longer try. There's no defeat except we say there is. There is no barrier except that of our own inherent weakness of purpose. Before success becomes a reality we are sure to meet with temporary defeat, and perhaps some failure. When defeat overtakes us, the easiest and most logical thing to do is quit. And that's exactly what the majority of people do.
But that's not your destiny. Just stay focused on your mission in life. The thing you inherently sense you are meant to accomplish and contribute. Learn the important lessons contained in the mistakes you make. Then release them and let them go. The key to learning from any experience that hasn't turned out well is to extract from it the valuable benefits and lessons it offers, understanding that the lesson continues until the lesson is learned. This learning emerges when we hold ourselves accountable and ask critical questions such as: What happened? Why did it happen? What part did I play? What learning can I gain? What significant shifts in perception must I now make that will serve me better in the future?
Failure has taught me that if something can't be done in the way I thought it could, then I should just take another, sometimes parallel path and simply try again. Failure is never final unless we accept that it's so. It can simply be a stepping stone to success. There's no one except you keeping score of your failures, they don't count against you. If you do this, you'll eventually succeed. Most people make one or two attempts, and they then stop trying. I encourage you to embrace the words and philosophy of Thomas Alva Edison: "I am not discouraged, because every failure is yet another step forward."
It can be painful when we fail, but never as painful as quitting and adopting the negative belief: I have failed therefore I am a failure. That's crap thinking! You're simply an evolving human being, one who makes mistakes, so what! The problem with this thing people call failure is not in falling down, but in staying down. It's more empowering to adopt the philosophy that, when I fall down I get up, dust myself off and continue on. For every failure, there's an alternate course of action. You just have to find it.
The good news is that you can make a new start anytime you want. It's a fact that we learn nothing from our successes. It is from failure that all growth comes, provided you can recognize it, admit it, learn from it, rise above it, and try yet again. So don't choose to become the prisoner of your past, but rather make a much more empowering choice which is to become the architect of your future.
Orison Swett Marden has a valuable contribution to this subject: "There is no failure for the person who realizes their power, who never acknowledges they are beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the person who gets up every time they fail, the person who rebounds, the person who pushes on when others turn back."
|
