Failure. This has been a failure. That event was a failure. We have failed. I have failed.
Failed.
It’s so interesting to me that this one word in its past, present, future tense glory has so much weight.
This idea of being allergic to failure, of being afraid of failing is very pervasive in our world.
So what really happens when we fail?
I mean aside from the actual failure part?
And the crushing feeling of not being good enough?
And the utter disgrace?
And the hours spent wondering where you went wrong?
I mean that’s def not a healthy response and I own that, but it happens sometimes.
But aside from all of those feelings?
We grow.
If we’re lucky and self-aware enough, we’re able to take that failure, lick our wounds a bit, and learn from it. At the very least, we learn what not to do right? Who not to be.
And if we’re in our growing era (which we should be in more often than not right?) we’re challenged to rethink our methods.
When all we do is win, we become afraid. We’re terrified that the next step could be a misstep and so we don’t take as many risks. We forget that it was those very risks that got us to these successes and we begin to stagnate.
I’m sure as you’re reading this you can think of several different times in your life when this was true.
So how do we stop this fear of failure creep?
I think…by always being bad at something.
By trying something new and forcing your brain to create new pathways.
Sometimes I think there’s nothing better than when you’re just absolutely terrible at something. There’s so much freedom in knowing you’re going to suck and you’re going to suck for a while. Why?
Because eventually, you suck less and less, until one day you don’t suck anymore. And next thing you know, you’re actually good at something new.
And then the process has to start all over again.
Here’s to sucking a little less today than yesterday.
(Have I mentioned I’ve taken up digital drawing? Def not my strong suit, I legit bought Affinity Photo for my IPad and I think a part of me died I was so frustrated. But hey, I now know how to use the clone stamp!)