It’s arrogant to think that you can ride a straight line to success without ever failing. Ridiculous.
We MUST fail, and we WILL fail, if we are to progress and improve. We’ve discussed this elsewhere–”failure” is learning, and learning is always necessary when we’re in the process of improving.
If things are going to remain the same and we’re committed to living a status quo existence, then no, failure may not come into the picture, because we’re not aspiring to anything different, and thus we won’t stretch ourselves.
Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden said, “If you’re not failing, you’re not doing anything”.
The only time we fail is when we quit–when we stop trying.
Yet, even then, there is caveat. There are times when the smartest thing to do is to end something and “quit”, e.g., when the return on our investment has trended downward too long and will never recover. In these cases, it’s time to get out and cut our losses.
For everything else, if you want to grow, progress, and improve, then you must get comfortable with failing.
So embrace it.
Of course, don’t TRY to fail, try to succeed. But see failure as a very necessary part of the process to improve, and it means you’re in the game taking some swings at the ball, rather than sitting on the sidelines.
Remember the great Wayne Gretzky’s quote: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.
When I was learning karate, there were some techniques that were (and are) very difficult. But the ONLY way to learn them is to make the same mistakes over and over, and OVER, and keep practicing.
Yes, it’s embarrassing falling on your face again and again. But it’s the only way to advance to the point of finally NOT falling on your face.
Every great accomplishment has had many failures along the way. Thomas Edison “failed” thousands of times before he finally got the first light bulb to work.
Same with Henry Ford and the first automobile.
And the same with you and I, learning to speak a new language, exercise consistently, or develop our public speaking skills.
Keep this in mind . . .
-to fail is to learn (make sure you get the lesson–don’t waste the experience!)
-to fail is a good sign–it means you’re actually trying!
-to fail is an experience, not an identity.
-if we keep failing and never see sufficient progress, then we need a mentor/coach/teacher. There are many things we simply can’t improve without the help of others, either because we don’t see the mistakes we’re making, or because we don’t know a better way to do the thing we’re learning.
So my fellow adventurers, keep at it! Keep failing. You’ll see improvement soon enough.