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Monday, April 16, 2012

Is Failing an Option?

                                   

To fail. Or not to fail.  To be. Or not to be.  Those are the questions.

Many times we will fail, however we are bombarded with phrases such that failure is not an option.

We must interpret what it means to fail.  To fail is a failure.

However, I believe to fail will always lead to success.  This is true when studying any inventor or scientist.  We can not learn without failure.  We can not.

However, it becomes one's choice to decide how to process failure.  There are a few different ways.

One is to deny the failure, move on and repeat the cycle.

Two is to panic and absorb negative feelings of inadequacy into your soul.

Three is to accept the failure.  Forgive if need be.  Decide what the reason for failure was.  Accept it and decide how to move forward and to either be or not to be.  To either correct or not to correct.  The latter will lead you back to option one.  History does repeat itself.  We are human.  We can learn.  We will fail.  We will survive.  We will progress.  We just will.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  This is true.  Sometimes we feel like we are killed and we take those feelings in and let them eat us up.  While they remain a part of us, we remain dead to the world.  We can not function.  We can not succeed.  We harbor feelings that will not allow us to succeed.

We all must face the music.  We are where we are.  We must deal with it.  If we fail to deal with it, then we will continue to fail.  Failing is good, but denying failure or not accepting failure will not allow us to move forward.

Steve Jobs has said that, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference.”

To dissect his comment further, in order to connect any dots, we must acknowledge our failures and our weeknesses.  If we do not, the only dots that we will be able to connect will be those of historical family legacy....the ones that we would like to leave behind and change.

However, accepting the failures we find will allow us to press on.

Don't be afraid to fail.  Don't be afraid to break anything.  For it is in these moments that defines who we are.

So, today I failed.  I did something that was not acceptable....not tolerable.  I had the 3 choices above.  I chose option 3.  I accepted.  I apologized.  I offered to make up for it.  Whatever comes of it is yet to be determined.  What I know today is that I forgive myself for making a mistake.  One that could have easily been avoided, but wasn't.  It is what it is.  The only thing I am going to do is accept that I screwed up and press on.  I am going to make sure it doesn't happen again.....as best I can.  That is all we can do....the best we can with what we have....with what we know....with what we choose.  We all make mistakes and will keep on making mistakes.  It's all in the angle we choose to look at it.  It is our choice to decide to evolve to change or not.

Bon Chance!

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