Failing Forward: 10,000 Reasons to Fail

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Are you tired of failing at relationships, business, and life in general? Do you feel as though no matter what you do every road leads to a dead-end? Or are you simply feeling defeated and ready to quit?

I have a confession to make. For the majority of my life I battled the fear of failure and was intimidated by other people's success. From childhood I was told by people I trusted and loved that I would never amount to much, and I should "just quit" trying to be something I "ain't." I had many flaws from being too short to too fat. And God knows I'll never make the cover of GQ, as one person once told me I had a face for radio, not television.

But, I was determined. Although their words influenced me in a very negative way, I set out to prove them wrong, despite the fact I was often convinced they may be right.

To add insult to injury, I have had many failures in life. Failed friendships, bad business dealings and decisions, well-intended ideas that fell flat and left me financially devastated. More often than not there were no cheerleaders cheering me on and encouraging me to cross the finish line. Frankly, the only two cheerleaders I had growing up were my mother and grandmother, and both of them graduated to eternity just a few short years between them, ending my two-member fan club.

While it is easy to get down and depressed thinking about the lack of support and bombardment of negative words that influenced my life, one thing I knew is if God was for me, then who could be against me? God is not only my Creator, He is Father and our greatest cheerleader! His plans for us are far brighter than we, ourselves, or anyone else can imagine! That I knew!

I found strength in Isaiah 54:17 that says, "no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue that rises against you, He shall condemn."

These are powerful words that can combat any and all negative seed planted in your spirit by naysayers and unbelievers, and I stood on this verse and still do!

Here is the truth about failure:

Failure is NOT permanent. Failure is an event. It may even be 10,000 events, but that still doesn't make it permanent. Every event is merely a temporary setback that teaches you 10,000 ways NOT to do something. After all, you will learn more about how to DO something by failing to do it numerous times.

Think about it. As toddlers learn to walk, count how many times they fail to achieve stability and balance as they attempt to take just one small step. They fall, they get up. They fall, they get up. They fall, again and again, and they get up again and again.

Do they get frustrated after several attempts? Yes! Do they cry and throw a fit in disappointment? Absolutely! But, they keep getting up and falling in order to learn how to achieve balance and stability. Eventually, they not only take one step, they take several, and it gradually increases as their stability, skill, and knowledge increases.

Each success fuels their confidence, until one day, they take off and it's on! The race has begun and then they don't sit still ever again. They mastered their failures and eventually achieved success after failing 10,000 times.

Here are a few tips to help you turn your 10,000 failures into stepping stones to success:

1. Allow yourself room to fail. Don't be so hard on yourself when you do fail.

2. Change your viewpoint. Remember each failure is just a lesson in how NOT to do something. Learn from it and use it to discover how to do it right.

3. Extend grace and mercy to others. Remember, their failures may be disappointing, but you, too, are imperfect. Extending grace to others will actually encourage them to do do better and learn from their experience. In the end, it creates a win-win for everyone.

4. Always be a student. Learning from others' mistakes will protect you from many trials and tribulations. Study those who fail and those who have succeeded. Learn and apply the lessons, and you'll save yourself a lot of headache and heart ache in the end.

5. Always put God first. When God is the center of everything in your life, whether it is your family, your business, or your health routine, He is the One who created you and knows exactly what to do in every situation. Just like the earth needs the sun, and rotates around it, God needs to be the center of your universe. Without Him, everything is just cold and dark, void and hopeless.

Be sure to check out my other articles on failure by clicking on the tag to the right. >>