Life, whether in the economic sense, political, social, national, or global, is a climb. That makes our world a giant mountain, and all of us, climbers. As is with all climbing, what is shocking is not falling along the climb but not falling at all. Therefore, naturally, we are supposed to fall at least once — because since it’s a climb, you can neither stand still nor walk straight. Here comes the biggest revelation of this article, falling in life is not a sign of our weakness but an indication of the type of terrain we live on.
Can you rush to blame a person for slipping and falling on the floor? I don't think so. Rather you run to their rescue. Why? Because you are certain of two things; #1 nobody loves falling #2 it must have been the floor. Either the floor was wet or there was something blocking the way.
This is exactly the attitude and behavior we should demonstrate towards people who have failed, are failing, or fail. More importantly, it is the same rationale we should have towards our own failure. We should not rush to blame others or ourselves for the failure at hand. It's never personal. There's always something else at play beyond their true desire and wishes.
The Truth About People
We (people) tend to think that we are special beings in the universe better than everything else. If you agree with this grandeur perception, here is something that might change your mind; what would you think if one guy stood up in the city square and shouted out loud,
'I'm the best person in this city' 'I'm the best person in this city' 'I'm special, everybody else is inferior compared to me'.
You'd be disgusted. Wouldn't you? 'that guy is crazy' so you'd think. Right? How then is it different when human beings claim to be special compared to everything else there is in the universe? They must be crazy to think like that. Right?
What we don't realize is the fact that the idea of specialness we hold on to does not empower us at all. As matter of fact, it does the opposite. The longer you feel, think, talk, and behave like you're special compared to others, you become weak at all levels of your existence.
By thinking that you are special you automatically lose your natural resilience and tolerance for enduring failure. And once you have failed, you lose the right sentiment and understanding to get back up from the fall gracefully and humbly. Because you take failure personal.
You keep asking, 'why me?' 'why me?' 'why me?' Forgetting that you're not the only one. You tend to think that a war has been waged against you and only you. Feeling under attack you jump into defense mode against everything and everyone that moves towards or around you.
Thankfully, now you know the truth. Failure and you are two distinct things. It's nothing personal. It's universal. It's everywhere. Everybody and everything experiences it.
Understanding Failure
How many times does a doctor ask a pregnant woman to push out the baby while giving birth? many times. Some take hours! push! push! push! push! push! 5 hours later after 1000 'push!', a baby is born. The first hour was a failure. And the second hour was a failure. And the thrid hour was a failure. The fourth hour was a failure too. But neither the doctor, the nurses nor the pregnant woman ever gives up. They keep shouting push! And she keeps trying to push until the baby comes out.
Failure, therefore, is a premature judgment of an unfinished process.
If you hold grudges against failure, you don't understand it. If you did, you'd see it as something normal, a part of life, just like you.
Stop Running Away From Failure
This goes to all of you unprofessional failure marathon runners. You fool yourselves into thinking that you can run away from failure or challenges but you can't. It's a treadmill run. You can go for hours but you're still in the same place and tired too.
You've had about people who cross the ocean in small boats hoping to reach Europe, believing that as soon as their feet touch the sand on the shores of Europe, failure will be a thing in their past, something they'll never meet again.
Such ignorance makes them live everything behind including family and friends, nation and home, only to encounter the exact same failure on day one of their arrival. This is not to downplay migration. It is to downplay wrong migration reasons i.e. running away from failure. How can you run away from something that is everywhere? Always?
Even publicly successful people with regard to wealth and achievement still experience failure on a daily basis. It's not something you leave behind or something you can outgrow by becoming rich or famous. It's something that is legitimately a part of life, just like you.
Look In The Face Of Failure, Eye to Eye, And Deal With It.
'Look at something long enough, it changes'. The first principle of any dealership whether it's for a car sale, a house sale, lobbying for an election, or courting a man or a woman, is the possession of relevant knowledge. The understanding of something gives leverage power over it.
By knowing what failure is, and by understanding its depth and heights, you are better positioned to make maneuvers that keep you going no matter what. If you knew that the floor will be wet, you'd walk slowly and cautiously. You definitely wouldn't run.
When there's a challenge and you are aware of it, it's up to you to come up with effective strategies to overcome it without losing your head or your heart. In addition to that, when the challenge makes you fail once or twice, given your understanding of failure, you don't panic, you don't run, rather you look it in the eye and tell it, 'I'm going to try again' and 'I'll keep trying until I make it.
More to follow...
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