Tag: failure

Categories
motivation

When Setbacks Happen

Sketch of me with leg pain illustrating when setback happen.

Earlier this month, I went for my weekend run. I was going to run six miles, determined to keep on my plan to run a half marathon this fall. Then the pain started, and I found myself pondering what to do when setbacks happen.

  • Should I quit?
  • Should I cut today’s run short?
  • If I push through, will I injure myself?

The pain didn’t go away. Eventually, I decided it was foolish to push my knee to the point of severe damage. Ironic, isn’t it? I wrote a post on sticking with it, and I injured myself.

It was so ironic, I didn’t want to write this post! I sat on it for two weeks. How could I write a post about a setback right after encouraging others to stick with it? But that’s exactly when I needed to write it.

Sticking with it is easy when slow and steady progress is unimpeded. It’s much harder when I have to take a detour. But that’s when the successful learn from failure.

What do you do when you have a plan and reality throws you a curveball?

Categories
motivation

Nobody Drifts to Success

jellyfish swimming in the sea
Photo by Anastasia Lebedeva on Pexels.com

It doesn’t matter what you want to achieve. Nobody gets there by happenstance. Nobody drifts to success. Sure, we hear stories that may convince us this is the case. Some are born with silver spoons in their mouths, but nobody drifts into doing something meaningful and successful.

Show up and do the hard work. Every Monday, be the one who faithfully puts in the hours and the effort because drifting isn’t a strategy. It’s a recipe for failure. I would rather make the effort and fail, than fail by default because I have never tried.

Let’s face it: it’s too easy to drift. The good news is that you can wake up and correct your course once you realize you are drifting.

Categories
motivation

It's Not Over Until You Say It's So

Cartoon of a man and his dog. They are trying to go up an icy hill, to no avail. I drew this for Illustration Friday. This week's word is "reverse."

Do you feel like giving up? Did you think you had some traction, only to discover you were on ice and sliding downhill? In those times, it can be tempting to give up, throw in the towel and sulk in a corner. It may feel hopeless. But it’s not over until you say it’s so!

Cartoon of a man and his dog. They are trying to go up an icy hill, to no avail. I drew this for Illustration Friday. This week's word is "reverse."

Yogi Berra was famous for his yogiisms. Even the BBC noted while some of his sayings were silly, this one has become quite helpful:

“It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Yogi Berra
Continue reading “It's Not Over Until You Say It's So”
Categories
Christianity

Stand or Fall

There was a time when I would read the Old Testament and would smirk at how the Israelites would stumble and fall. Today, I realize no matter who we are, we all must take care to see whether we stand or fall. The Apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 10.

“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

1 Corinthians 10:12 (KJV)

Paul warned us that we are no better than anyone else. If God was with the Israelites in the wilderness, if He gave them everything they needed to survive, and yet they still made mistakes of unfaithfulness and sin, what makes us think they would be any different.

Pride blinds us from seeing potential trouble. It makes us believe we can do no wrong. Then when our sins are exposed, it keeps us from admitting we messed up. It happened to King David, and the scriptures say he was a man after God’s own heart. What makes us think it couldn’t happen to us?

When I am at a factory, there are signs everywhere that remind me of hazards. There are potentials to slip, trip, and fall on every factory floor. The person who thinks it will never happen to them is the one most likely to end up in the emergency room.

We don’t avoid slipping hazards by thinking it will never happen to us. Every factory employee knows slips, trips, and falls can happen anywhere if they aren’t paying attention. Pride comes before a fall.

Cartoon of a boy who is about to fall into a manhole. Another boy says, "I'm sorry you were proud. Just stop!"
Yes, pride comes before a fall!

On this Sunday morning, I plan to take a time of self-examination. What am I not seeing that could be potential trouble? Am I looking down on someone that is no worse than me? Could it be that their fall is a warning to me?

We may think we are standing when in reality, we may be on the ground in the muck of the gutter. It’s very sobering to remind myself that there are slip and trip hazards all around us.

Categories
motivation

The Steps to Success

The Steps to Success

All of us want to succeed. But very few of us want to take the steps to success if that means we fail at something. I get it. Who says, “Yes! Give me more failure, please!”

William Whewell Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2022. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/william_whewell_126253, accessed February 1, 2022.

Honestly, until today I wasn’t aware of who William Whewell was. The guy was a renaissance man long after that era was over. He was an Anglican priest, scientist, polymath, and philosopher. Whewell gave us the words “scientist” and “physicist” among others. In short, he was a genius.

Yet, he also saw the value of trying, failing, learning, and trying again to succeed. We may be risk-averse, but without the possibility of failing, there is no path to success. Failure and achievement go hand in hand.

We each have a choice on whether to make something of significance or to avoid the risk of failure and appearing foolish. Each thought we have towards a goal has to be tested. Let’s face it. not every thought we have is going to succeed in the real world.

In a world full of manufactured goods, we are tempted to believe that since that product looks consistent and perfect now, there was never any failure involved. However, I have seen how much trial and error goes into a product and marketing campaign. No one gets it right on the first try.

An assembly line may create a consistent, perfect product now, but how did that product get to that point? Even the assembly line took some testing, failing, and readjusting before it ran smoothly.

Even then, it may not run perfectly one-hundred percent of the time. Has anybody heard of product recalls? Hopefully, a company learns and improves from each one.

So I encourage you to take some steps to achieve today. Be bold enough to try, make some mistakes, learn, and climb the steps to success.