“Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” Margo Channing (Bette Davis), All About Eve (1950)
This month has been filled with major doses of reality. It seems that each day was riddled with one miserable and disappointing failure after another. Over the course of the month, I’ve become very discouraged and begun to question my choices.
Specifically I’ve struggled with developing my skills at work, being prepared for school, parenting my children, staying healthy – physically and emotionally and setting boundaries with my personal relationships.
I’m not used to failing. My experience is to be really good at everything I do. So, this morning as I was sitting in my bathtub lamenting over all of my recent failures, I decided that there must be a silver lining to this dark and daunting cloud. I decided to do a little research and revisit what it means to fail.
Here’s what I discovered.
First, as a culture we’ve all been taught that failure is something bad. Failure means lack of success. A lack of success means you are no good, a putz, a complete and utter failure. If you are not successful, you are a social outcast. It’s easy to connect the dots on this one.
In fact, the act of failing has just the opposite meaning. Failure means you are learning and growing in your skills and experience. Failure is a desirable state of being. Failure is not a disappointment – Failure Is Success.
Secondly, failure is meant to drive us. As I am demonstrating here, failure is best when it kicks your butt into action. If you can discover the root of your failure you’re half-way to the end point for turning it around in your favor.
Finally, failure is not yours alone. Everyone fails. You are not the President of that Club…everyone gets invited for membership. The difference is how we each choose to deal with our failures.
Here’s what I observe about failure and the people around me.
1. Some of us don’t recognize failure. These people cannot be helped.
2. Some of us poke our head in the sand – which I was very tempted to do. These people won’t look at their failures directly. They look away. Because of this, their failures are always gnawing away at them. These are the people you encounter in your life that are constantly angry, unhappy and depressed.
3. Some of us take failure as a challenge to get back up and try harder, learn more, and expand ourselves. I choose to live here.
Marianne Williamson from Oprah Radio points out that if we look at our failures squarely in the face and figure out what needs to be learned we can absolve and forgive ourselves for not being perfect. The silver lining? After we’ve forgiven ourselves, we can go on to love and create in ways we didn’t know we could before we failed. That’s great stuff! You can listen to her complete podcast by clicking on the Miracle Thought for the Day link under the Oprah Power Link section of this post.
So all I have to say is “Viva La Consolata Querme – a miserable failure in her own right”. “May she continue to fail, over and over again on the bumpy road to success”.
Oprah Power Link:



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