Failure is a layer; maybe thick, maybe thin, between where you are right now and where you want to be. But what is failure? Failure, by definition, is the lack of success. But further, it comes with: uncertainty, denial, discouragement, unrewarding, fear, and various other negative emotions.
It’s easy to turn to these negative emotions after a disastrous failure, or after attempting the same challenge numerous times. Believing in success after failure can be a sense of false hope. If you’re looking at what you want to succeed that intently and to be the only form of success, then yes, it can be false hope. But if you open your mind to the other opportunities that can spark from your decision to get up one more time, then rising again can lead you towards the success you didn’t know you were looking for. Falling 100 times may be painful, but getting up the 101st time will make you one step closer to whatever “success” is.
Success doesn’t have to be succeeding your challenge. Hidden success are the values and lessons gained through the process of confronting your fear of failure with the ability to act on something more powerful than fear. Or they can be hidden opportunities. The only thing limiting yourself from failure is yourself. Yes, sometimes there are outside forces that you are unable to manipulate to your liking, but that’s just the way the world is. Not everything is in your control, and failure is normal. But ultimately, at the end of the day, you are the one that is totally in change of how you see a situation, and whether you continue another day, or tell yourself it is time to walk away.
Maybe you choosing to not do something anymore is your success. Remember that sometimes walking away is the hardest thing to do; sometimes it takes everything in you to walk away. Like many know, sometimes holding on does less good than letting go. Sometimes, what seems like a failure, may actually be an accomplishment. Letting go of something that no longer serves you positively opens new doors for different opportunities that can take you where you were meant to be.
I have found that failure in things that are dear to your heart, such as relationships, and life goals, are difficult to accept. It’s important to understand that there can be expiration dates for things that you thought were forever. But it’s not the end of the world. An end is the start of a new beginning. The end of something that took an emotional toll on you, is now making room for something new to pop in. Maybe it’s a new hobby, or a new friend, but there’s always something that will fit you better than what has happened in the past. Something good will come along, whether you believe in it or not. Like the death of a star, it doesn’t explode into nothing, but it becomes something else; it becomes a nebula.
Failure is necessary in order to grow. If you were too used to getting your way, what would you do when faced with something that threatens your success. What seems to be failure, can be another opportunity in disguise, but what you choose to do with the opportunity determines its fate. Without seeing the potentials of what failure can bring you, it would be easy to think that there is no other way. Without the illusion of failure, you wouldn’t understand what true success is, along with the different obstacles and hurdles of complexity thrown at you. But success is like the stars. In order to appreciate them, you must be able to see and understand them through darkness in order to see its true potential and beauty it has to offer.
