The Positive Side Of Failure

"Failure is an event not a person." - Zig Ziglar
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to recall our failures? More often than not our failures stand out in our minds more vividly than our successes.
Humiliation, fear, and guilt are just a few of the emotions linked to failure, so is it any wonder we never forget how it feels when we blow it?
All too often failure is credited as being something to avoid at all costs. New ideas, new methods, new risks and new situations all create a slight tinge of apprehension in all of us. Why? Because we're afraid that if we step out into anything beyond that which is familiar to us, we will fail.
And to that I say, so what? The older I get the more I realize that failure is not as awful as we think it to be.
Unless if course you're skydiving and your parachute fails to open.
But that's neither here nor there.
The question is simple; without failure how can we ever succeed? Without failure how can APPRECIATE success?
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan
I've referred to that quote before, but it bears repeating.
Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, tells us point blank that failure is the impetus to success. We must dare to succeed but in order to do so we must be willing to risk and accept failure and the lessons to be learned from it.
For those who have achieved great success in life, failure was their teacher, a mentor that reminded them of what TO do and what NOT to do the next time around.
For others failure is their excuse, their crutch as to why they have not achieved success.
Successful people have recognized that failure is not permanent but rather a moment in time. Unsuccessful people have allowed a momentary failure to become permanent.
But it doesn't have to be.
Failure is an event all of us will experience. It happens. But who said it has to keep you down for good? Think of how many times you fell down when you were a baby learning to walk. If you were to have said, "Eh, what's the point, I'm just going to fall down again," you'd be dependent upon everyone to carry you! Pretty ridiculous to think of a grown adult that still needs to be carried everywhere, right? Well, I happen to think it's pretty ridiculous for grown adults to sabotage their success in life for fear of failure.
Your life is the result of what you have invested into it. Much like any successful financial investor, they took the risk and it paid off.
So what about it? Can you really look at yourself and say, "I just can't risk failing. I am better off struggling to get by in life. It's what I know and it's all I know."
Don't let failure steal another moment of your life. Take action, move towards your goal and if you fall down, learn from it.
Failure is a great instructor. And the best part about it is it's free. It doesn't charge by the hour and it doesn't make you sign a contract. It just shows up and says, "Nope! That's wrong. Try again."
Remember that the next time you blow it. (Because you will blow it at some point.)
Now go out there and take a few risks you big chicken!