Fail Forward Never Back

John Wooden said it, failure is not fatal, but failure to change probably is.

One could fail just to reach a set goal, complete an assigned task, graduate, or even earn the trust from the love of their life. To triumph over failure, one needs to transmute a fundamental aspect of their life which usually is the genesis to their failure, not all succeed to do this hence end up settling in failure. Failure manifests its self in so many ways we even fail to discern that we are are failing at times.

Failure is not a pleasant experience, but it shall not be the worst either. Every cloud has a  silver lining so as horrible as it may seem, a lack of success as well has its positive attributes, this being helping us discern that we are following the wrong path or we are just not doing it right. Our success depends on our response to failure; some opt to quit which is the easiest way out and is usually effectuated by a lack of motivation and courage, while others opt to see failure not as a stumbling stone but rather a stepping stone to elevation, so they try again.

Trying again is so ambiguous that at times it is mistaken with giving up. Doing it over is society’s apparent elucidation of trying again. But one could argue and say doing something different is not giving up on the previous attempt but rather just trying again as well, “I have not failed, I just found a thousand ways that wont work” Thomas A. Edison. Arduously trying to make one way work could be worthwhile, but trying an alternative way that yields better is definitely a cut above.

I believe lowering our expectations is a good start lest sustaining superfluous failure. Too much of a good thing is bad; so yes it is good to set goals and work towards them, but if you set them absurdly over the top you are prone to derail in the long run as you try to match your efforts with the expected outcomes probably because its just way above your abilities. Morale here is not to undermine but be reasonable and fair to oneself. Always remember James Cameron‘s words when setting your goals: If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.

Let this not serve as justification to failure but rather another angle of looking at the lack of success, which all beings are prone to experience at some point.