Failures

Mistakes, failures, shortcomings. These things are a constant in life, these things are a constant in everyone's lives.

And for some reason, these things carry with them a negative connotation. One with disappointment, resentment, and discontentment.

With every mistake we make, with every failure we see in ourselves, there comes a looming feeling of remorse, guilt, and major disappointment in what we think we should be.

We fail to see that these very mistakes we are making, these very failures, are successes themselves. That it is not the failure that makes us remorseful, but the way in which we handle that failure.

We see quotes from "the greats" urging us to fail and fail again. We see it almost every day, yet the minute we fail at something, the minute we fall off track from our goals and vision, we sink into a self-pitying, regretful state of mind.

Those of us that strive for bigger things, that dream at a large scale, and that are constantly looking for ways to improve— we are hard on ourselves. We see each lapse in our plan as a sign of weakness, as a brand new, gaping failure.

When really, we should see a chance— a chance to get it right again, a chance to re-evaluate what we really want, a chance to remember our goals, and most importantly, a chance to learn and proceed in a way that is better, more effective, and more beneficial to our lifestyles. We should see a chance to set ourselves up for a better success rate in the future.

The failures you come across, they aren't failures at all. They're learning curves, they're stepping stones, they're chances to handle them in a new way— by growing, re-evaluating, and sometimes, just laughing them off.

Let's stop putting failure into the negative word category. Let's shift it. Let's shift it to the positive side.

Generally, each time I write it's because I have failed at something, or I have failed in the way I have handled something, and I am trying to learn from that failure— as you have seen, I write nearly every day.

And today, I write because I have failed again. I have made mistakes over and over. I have been hard on myself, I have been remorseful. I have failed to see that each of my failures has been a new opportunity.

Welcome mistakes, welcome failures. Learn from them, apply them, and grow from them.

And if you fail to see them as a positive, as a chance— forgive yourself and learn again.