Failure

“I was afraid I’d fail, which felt worse than never trying at all.”
— Miles Grant (“A Texan’s Promise” by Shelley Gray)

How often do we feel this way? We get it in our head that “If I don’t try, I won’t experience failure”. And, so, we never try. People may even encourage us and say things like “You’d be so good at that” or “You’d be better at that than any of us”. But we’re still afraid. Afraid to face failure. Afraid that we might not be able to pick ourselves up after we fall. We convince ourselves that we would most likely fail, so it’s not worth it to even try. We might never recover from such a failure!  I wonder how much good, and happiness, and success we miss out on because we are so afraid that we will fail at something.

Failure isn’t always a bad thing, ya know. You can learn from it… grow from it… become a better person because of it.

How many kids try to walk and get it right the first time without stumbling?
How many movies are made without any retakes of any scenes?
How many things were invented without any mess-up’s?
How many musicians pick up a piece of music and play it perfectly the first time through?
How many gymnasts and acrobats can say that they have never fallen?

My point is this: If they had never taken a chance and failed, then tried again, and again, and again — they would never have been successful.

So, go out and try something you’ve been scared to do. If you fail… pick yourself up and try again.  You never know, it just might be worth it.