I’ve had my fair share of failures the last few years – being a parent and starting a small business guarantees that!
Failing is never a fun thing. It certainly doesn’t feel good. It’s not something we like to admit. It’s not something we like to talk about. It’s not something we even want to think about.
But, everyone fails. EVERYONE. And failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing. If we use the experience correctly, we can even actually learn and grown from it!
But it is so hard in the moment!
I think the hardest part of failure is the fear. But what are we really afraid of? It’s really easy to compare our worst to everyone else’s best (or at least what they are showing us on social media!) We see the end results on social media, but we rarely know what it took to get to that point.
Scrolling through social media there are countless photos and videos of people nailing difficult gymnastics movements and getting impressive new lifting personal records. But we don’t see how many times they failed to get to that point.
My favorite videos are the ones of missed lifts – over and over again. But the athlete not giving up. And then they finally hit it. There is an great, old video (I couldn’t find it to link it) of Chris Spealler working on his snatches. The video shows dozens and dozens of missed attempts before he finally gets it at the end. You can see him fail over and over and over again. It’s impressive to see him finally get it, but more importantly I love that you get to see him go through all those misses first. It’s a more accurate representation of the process – and one we don’t often get to see.
I get it, no one wants to publicize the things they aren’t good at yet. We are afraid of looking weak, being judged, and feeling inferior. But is any of that really true? And even if it is – does it matter?
Nobody gets through life without some failings. And the more successful the person, the more likely they’re suffered some pretty jarring failings! They just refused to stop at the failings, and have pushed forward to find successes.
Remember that failing at something doesn’t make you a failure. It’s worth repeating, so please listen – failing doesn’t make you a failure. The only time we fail is if we stop trying and don’t learn something from the experience!
You can take this lesson and apply it throughout your life. Having a bad parent moment doesn’t mean you are a bad parent. Doing a less than stellar job on a project at a work doesn’t mean you are bad at your job. Struggling through a movement or workout at the gym doesn’t mean you suck at CrossFit.
These are opportunities to learn a bit about yourself. And hopefully we take these chances and grow from them so that next time we can make an effort and be a little bit better!