Perseverance

Perseverance

So people fail…all the time. It’s part of life, it’s part of the world we live in.  Sometimes people fail in big, public, obvious ways, like coming in last place in a race or burning dinner to a crispy pulp right before the guests arrive.  Sometimes people fail in smaller, private, less obvious ways, like not beating a personal best on the treadmill or overcooking your microwave popcorn while you are preparing to watch your most favorite current guilty pleasure (GoT anyone?).

Now, the big, public, obvious failures may seem like they are a bigger deal and may seem like they need more work to overcome.  However, that is not always the case.  For some people, ANY form of failure is difficult.  Yes, burning the popcorn just may be enough to ruin the night.

But here’s the thing.  Successful people also fail…all the time.  Because it’s part of life, their life too.  It’s part of the world successful people live in too.  Sometimes successful people fail in big, public obvious ways like when Tom Brady throws an interception.  You’ve heard of him, right?  He’s the quarterback for the New England Patriots.  He has won a few games over the years. 

Sometimes successful people fail in smaller, private, less obvious ways, like not handling a situation with the kids or the dogs or the partner or the stranger with the level of patience and kindness and love that they would like.  The kids or the dogs or the partner or the stranger may not even notice, however it may bother the successful person for the rest of the day.

So yes, everyone fails.  EVERYONE.  Even the Tom Brady’s of the world.

Now you might be wondering what the difference is between someone that is identified as a success and someone that is identified as a failure.  And I’ll give you a clue here.  Success has LITTLE to do with talent.  Sure it plays a small role, but there are plenty of people with talent that do not succeed.

There are two parts to success that are way more relevant than talent.  The first is something we’ve talked about before and will talk about again.  And that is the idea of self-talk.  So people that are successful are able to extract the lessons and the value out of a situation which ended in a perceived failure.  They are able to see the successes inside the failures and they lock onto that instead of the failure itself.

The other thing that separates out the successes from the failures is another fairly simple concept.  And it is not talent.  It is not luck.  It is not a good support system or having lots of money.  It is quite simply perseverance.  It is the willingness to push through, over, under, or around whatever obstacle or challenge is placed before you.  As Winston Churchill said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”   And Robert Kennedy believed that “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

See, failure is not only a part of life but is a part of success.  A HUGE part of success.  Failure is not the finish line.  Failure is simply God, the Universe, whatever letting you know that there is a better way, a way that you may not see now, but that is out there.  And it is not up to you to decide WHY there is a better way.  It is up to you to decide to continue to move forward until you find it.

THAT is the difference between success and failure.  And you, yes YOU deserve to succeed.