Sunday Story...Born to Fail

We are born to fail.

Think about it. Every day we get a little closer to extinction. We are born to grow old and ultimately, to die. In our day to day lives we are afraid of failure. It seems to be ingrained into our psyche. Many people go out of their way to avoid failure, always taking the safe way, the easy way.

Yet the question we really should ask is this: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Just imagine…everything you attempt is a success. Every interview, every financial venture, every workout, every diet, everything in your life is a success.

Here is a news flash for you: You cannot fail. You are successful every time you leave the house. Let’s shout that right out: YOU CANNOT FAIL. Never. No Failure.

Wait a minute…in the beginning you said you were born to fail. Now you are saying you can’t fail? Aren’t those two things in opposition to each other? Those things can’t exist together can they? Can’t they? Why not?

We are all going to die. At that moment your body will cease to exist. Between now and then, though everything you do is a success. Sure businesses close and lose money, relationships end, goals aren’t met but that doesn’t mean they are failures. It just means the outcome wasn’t what you wanted or expected or attempted to get to.

Every sports team in the world wants to win it all…get to the big show, the championship, or the gold medal. No one starts the season expecting or planning to be mediocre. I don’t get up in the morning hoping to be average and neither do you. If the team ends up with a losing season are they failures? No…not if they learned something along the way and not if they did the work and enjoyed the process.
If your relationship ends was it a failure? Not if you learned something about yourself, the other person or who you are in relationship and maybe who you don’t want to be next time.

Failure represents the ultimate end of the venture. No more learning, nothing left to be gained is what failure really means. Just because you didn’t hit the mark you were aiming at doesn’t mean you failed. It just means you need to adjust your aim. There is always something to be learned.

I would exhort you to redefine failure and success. Everything carries within it the seed of learning, the secret of doing it differently, doing it better and doing it in a way that gets you closer to what you are aiming at. I would say you have failed if you didn’t learn anything from the attempt. Which means the rest of the world can see you as successful but if you haven’t learned something and applied the lessons you have failed.

Learn and grow rich…in experience, in effort, in lessons learned.

REMEMBER…YOU CANNOT FAIL!

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com