Failure is my Friend
Most of us hate losing. If you don’t believe me, ask an Atlanta Falcons fan about our last Super Bowl trip or a BullDawg fan about that last NCAA Championship game. Or better yet, ask a Gonzaga basketball fan about that one loss in the Championship game. I bet it really hurt. So close to perfection. Yet so far from it.
Losing means failing. Failing is very personal. But failing is the doorway to the greatest personal high ever – overcoming. Overcoming your failures. That is the endorphin of all endorphins. Working out failure produces that endorphin, and we call it the overcoming feeling. It is a supernatural high. It builds grins and empowers smiles. It is the real deal. We all want that. But we forget sometimes that failure is its precursor. Failure comes first.
We have been through some tough seasons lately. And I am not just talking about the Falcons, the Dawgs or your favorite team. I am talking about pandemic level stuff. Deaths. Loss of loved ones. Business failures. Loss of livelihood. It is scary.
But failure gives us data points and launching points for success. Failure teaches us something. But only if we are willing to open it up and look inside it. Open up that failure in an honest way. Really dig deep into the reasons for the failure. Yes, failure requires a really hard inward look.
Why did you fail? Was it really the fault of someone else? Were you really not in control of your health, your life, your marriage, your business, your whatever? Do you really want to admit that lack of control? Actually, you might. It might be an important point that allows a release and leads you to a launching point. And that may propel you toward the high of overcoming.
If we fail today, lets sure hope we don’t lose the opportunity to use our failure as a launching pad sending us to the highest success we have ever achieved. Write down your failures. Fold the paper and set it aside for a minute. Then open it up and look inside at the failures. Write down what they taught you. Write down what you learned from them. Write down how each failure will launch you forward. Fold the paper back up. Then visualize launching forward. And go do it. I believe in the power of failures and the high of overcoming. I believe both are real.