Permission to Fail

Failing isn’t seen as a good thing by most people. Many feel that if you fail that means you have little value and that you will never get better; but that is too bleak a way to look at life. Failure can be one of life’s greatest teachers because it goes hand in hand with experience— yes it is arguable you can learn from another person’s experience but thats a topic for another day. 

Failure isn’t the end, life is kinda like a video game in many sense because you get to retry with a greater knowledge of how to proceed. The hard part is getting over your own self doubt and any other misery you have inflicted on yourself because you failed. Sure, the failure might be a public one or a private one that rips away at your mental state—but you shouldn’t let it, I didn’t. I have failed quite a few times in my short life…hell I estimate I will experience several more failures with the time I have left but I actually embrace the idea of it. Don’t get me wrong, failure sucks! Initially when you’re enduring it you will feel at your lowest; but the most important thing to remember is that you will endure it, you will survive (unless you crumble under the pressure and take your life…I hope not) and you will live to see tomorrow.

So it doesn’t seem as if I’m blowing hot air or smoke up someone’s arse I will give you some examples of how I failed and turned it around:

1) I was suspended from college for preforming poorly academically (took the semester off and came back determined to graduate on time—because of that and having some amazing people in my corner I was able to bounce back).

2) I have either been dumped, cheated on or flat our rejected (yet I still persist in dating…one can’t fully appreciate the awesome moments spent with someone special without experiencing some pain…or a lot of pain >.< ).

3) I wrote a poetry book that didn’t sell very well and what did sell I never saw the profits from (but I am going to keep writing so that my ideas are out and about for the world to see, not just locked up in my imagination).

4) I have been fired from a job before (turned out great because at that location I didn’t have the time to develop myself further and would have never actually finished writing—I’m also now setting myself up for a more fulfilling life than what that particular job would have allowed for me)

5) Been through traumatic injury—there was a time when a rather heavy object came down full force on my head and caused me wear a neck brace for about a month. I also had headaches and my upper spine hurt like hell for several months (currently I don’t have that pain any more)




I gave these examples not as a means to brag but to further emphasise its not about what harms you or takes something away from you but how you bounce back from the pain, or how you react to the hand that you're dealt—I don’t know about you but I don’t intend to fold without a fight (any poker players in the house?). To be a bit cliche, its not about winning but how you play the game and ensuring you have a good time while you're at it--there is no shame in losing, just pick yourself up for another match or switch games. Please, no matter what your situation is, don’t give up hope—its a hard currency to replenish once its been spent.