One of the hardest feelings that all of us have to overcome in life, is the fear of failure. What if we try something new and fail? What if people make fun of us for failing repeatedly? Will we only fail and never succeed? Are we just wasting our lives?
These are the things that many of us often ponder before trying something new, or something that makes us even the slightest bit uncomfortable. The majority of the time, it is often these exact thoughts that are preventing us from actually doing what it is that we want to do in life. So much so, that we are willing to give up everything that we believe in just to play it safe.
But I want to question you here. Are we actually living a better life if we simply play it safe, instead of taking chances on ourselves and perhaps failing repeatedly? I don’t know about you, but I believe that it might be better to fail on a consistent basis than to live and only play it safe.
After a twelve hour work day yesterday, I came home and just needed to unwind. Up until the last two hours of work, I was having a fantastic day. I met my numbers, I got every done that I needed to, and I just felt good about myself. Then, I made a costly mistake. A mistake that brought me from feeling good about myself, to feeling like a complete failure.
I got home, jumped right in bed, and started watching Blue Bloods to help take my mind off of what I was thinking (by the way, if you have not watched Blue Bloods, it is a great show). Right before I was about to shut off the TV and go to bed, something was said in the show that really grabbed my attention.
“There is almost nothing to learn from success. Failure, on the other hand, is the best teacher that you will ever have. If you aren’t failing, then you aren’t trying. If you aren’t trying, then you aren’t really living.” – Jamie Reagan
It resonated with me so well, because here I was feeling like nothing but a failure. But at the same time, I was being taught a valuable lesson. A lesson that I might not have ever had the pleasure (or lack thereof) of experiencing if I didn’t make the mistake that I did.
Without getting into too much detail about what it was that left me feeling like a failure, I realized that the reason I was feeling like a failure in the first place was because I tried something new. I broke out of my comfort zone, tried to do something different, and I failed.
Alright, screw this, I am going to take ownership of this mistake. It simply doesn’t do any good to hide how I am feeling. Not only did I fail, I fell flat on my face and failed miserably.
Yeah, it sucks that my day ended on such a low note. I don’t think anybody would want to feel down on themselves. But you know what, today is a whole new day to apply the lessons that I learned from my mistakes yesterday. Believe it or not, I am actually grateful for that.
I am grateful that I found the strength in myself to break out of my comfort zone and try something new in the first place. I am grateful that I failed, and that I was taught a valuable lesson. More importantly, I am grateful that I feel alive. I feel the way that I do because I care about bettering myself each day. That is something that I didn’t always feel.
Take it from someone who was doing nothing with their life – once you believe in yourself and learn to accept failure, life will become more fun to live. Take a chance on yourself, learn from the mistakes that you ARE going to make, and live to better yourself each and every day. Remember, you are not living if you are not failing.
Michael Bonnell
12/18/2018
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