Are you a failure? That’s right… I am asking you a serious question…are you a failure?
After all, you have failed hundreds of thousands of times… as I have. If you live long enough, and if you truly seek to reach your personal and professional potential (success), you will fail again… and again… and again.
Failure is not fun, many times not pretty, and can be very difficult to handle and accept. Yet failure is inevitable, and is absolutely critical on our journey to higher levels of success (however you define success).
Some, perhaps many so called “friends and colleagues” may laugh at you, scorn you, ridicule or criticize you, or simply shake their heads in amazement that you did not have the good sense to NOT TRY… but rather, to expose yourself to the potential of personal and/or public failure.
Remember this for the rest of your life! Those people who laugh at or criticize you because of your failures, whether to your face or behind your back, are NOT your friends and colleagues. They are petty, pathetic little people who are not interested in your best interests. These people prove, via their actions and behavior that they don’t have the knowledge and wisdom to understand, admire, applaud and support the process of continually testing and attempting to reach one’s potential.
These people are unworthy of your precious time and energy. They are a negative influence to all you want to be and all you want to contribute. Dismiss them from your mind and life… the sooner the better. If circumstances preclude you from dismissing some of these people from your life, avoid them like the plague… for that is exactly what they are… dreadful, poisonous, deadly plague that can and will destroy your life.
This is not to be confused with friends and colleagues who offer appropriate constructive criticism and supportive, positive coaching. Love and support these people… and draw them ever closer to your mind and soul. These are the people you want and need to take with you on your journey of a highly successful life (however you define success).
So, go ahead… intentionally, purposefully and consistently test the limits of your potential… over and over and over. Remember that your potential changes and expands as you learn, fail, succeed, gain knowledge and wisdom, and as you adjust to the circumstances of your life. The circumstances of almost every opportunity also constantly change throughout your life. Therefore, an excellent life strategy for today, tomorrow and every day for the rest of your life is to:
- Test and attempt – learn – and adjust…
- Test and attempt – learn – and adjust…
- Test and attempt – learn – and adjust…
- Test and attempt – learn – and succeed!
Failure is not final! And by the way, neither is success!
Stop and think about it. What do you really have to lose by repeatedly trying, testing, attempting, learning and adjusting? And, more importantly, what do you have to gain by repeatedly trying, testing, attempting, learning, and adjusting? The gains will no doubt surpass the potential losses by a factor of at least a thousand to one. Probably much, much more!
So, go for it! Fail – succeed, fail – succeed, fail – succeed. That, my friends, is the order in which it will happen. And… this is the magic formula for achieving all that you are sincerely committed to achieve!
