FAILURE

We have no guarantee of a life free from obstacles. In fact, if you aren't facing any, I would question - ARE YOU LIVING?! Are you going after that "Level 10" - giving all you have - each day? Are you moving forward toward your goals?

OR are you coasting? Are you drifting through life? Taking the easy route?

I've recently learned that some people do not like the word failure. I think MOST people do not embrace it enough. 

Yep - I said it. You see, you can spin it all day long and fluff it up, but ultimately there will be winners and losers. There will be goals met and goals missed. There will be times that we fall short. While I want to succeed and win at all I do, I don't think the end result is as nearly as important as what you do leading up to it AND what you do after. 

One of my favorite books is John Maxwell's, Failing Forward. In it, he addresses the perception of failure and its influence on our lives. 

The way I see it is that some people are so afraid of failure that it causes:

a. Paralyzation (inactivity, never trying, quitting, self-doubt, self-sabotage)

b. Stagnation (procrastination, false-activity, creative avoidance, performance plateau, complacency)

One keeps you from even trying and the other keeps you where you are currently. Either way fear of failure breeds inactivity OR false-activity (unnecessary busyness) - not productivity.

To me - this is the real tragedy. A fear filled life that avoids failure at all costs. A real champion will fail. In fact, a real champion will fail many times. Yet, a real champion will grow, strengthen and progress with every failure allowing them to reach even higher than thought possible. 

One thing I learned when I first did some weight lifting was that you are actually creating small tears in your muscles as you work them and push them. You are breaking them down. When you allow them to recover and heal, they build up stronger than before.  Life is similar, right? We face obstacles, we stumble, we may fail, but when we allow the proper recovery (and reflection), we will be stronger than before.

 

 

I am a younger sibling. Sure, it's nice to have someone who has gone before you, yet those older siblings can sometimes try to parent you. If you haven't experienced this, you've probably had someone older than you not fully understand why a trial you are facing is so stressful or difficult. See, when you are in jr. high and facing jr. high problems, those are the biggest trials you've faced. Yet, you make it through, you learn and you grow. You're stronger and more capable. Then, you face high school obstacles, college obstacles, job obstacles, parenting obstacles and so on. Each time you're a little stronger and you grow even more. 

When we fixate on perceived failures, or allow them to hold more weight than necessary, we run the risk of missing the mark. Because as much as we would like to segment our lives or hold on to singular moments, it's really the sum of the moments that build the person.

My challenge today - go fail at something! Make a mistake, be awkward, feel silly! Erase that period at the end of your failure, and try again! The only requirements - give it your all, your Level 10, and DO NOT quit. I imagine that you will discover something GREAT about yourself that you never knew before.

I am doing this and SO CAN YOU! Make it a LEVEL 10 Day!