Failure as defined by the oxford dictionary speaks to a lack or omission of an expected or required action or the lack of success. Yet there are those who believe failure is a part of our life’s journey and even our purpose journey. But what’s of utmost importance right now is what do we believe about failure, what’s your position, what’s my position, what’s our position?
John Wooden posited that “failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be”. While Robert F Kennedy takes his thoughts further daring to say “only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly”. Ken Robinson supports this by saying “if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”
Let’s take a closer look at some of those who have gone before us had to say, starting with a personal favourite.
“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” – Eloise Ristad
“No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.” – Chris Hardwick
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” – C.S. Lewis
“It’s failure that gives you proper perspective on success.” – Ellen DeGeneres
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Chris Bradford
“I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“If we intend to move from success to success then we must embrace moving from failure to failure.” – Vanesia Bowden
Now, after analysing all these quotes what do you realize? Can you see that in each instance one only fails when they give up, when they no longer brush themselves off and try again.
I say to you, if you fall down eight times, rise up nine. Rise up stronger than before. Failure doesn’t mean that you have not been successful in your attempt, because we can look at it in the same perspective as the glass is either half empty or half full. Failure just brings to our attention a road that doesn’t lead to our success. So, in my book that too is a win. we have highlighted a means that doesn’t work, here we know that there are other methods that can be tried.
Thus, I leave you with these final quotes, “If success is the goal that you seek, then failure is the barricade you must overcome time and time again” – Clayton Hamilton.
“Experiencing success on our purpose journey will require us to become skillful in overcoming the hurdles of failure ” Vanesia Bowden
So let us continue 2021 on our purpose journey, overcoming and succeeding…