Thankful Thursday

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” ~J. K. Rowling

I’ve failed, but I’m not a failure!!

It took me some time to build self-confidence and even longer to accept failure. Failure is the one thing we NEVER really plan for. When anyone of us try to build self-confidence and chase new goals, we always experience setbacks and failures. The thing is, no one ever sees it coming and so we are surprised by them. And not prepared for setbacks and failures, which make them even more difficult. This is why we should NEVER dwell on failure but be prepared for them.

It’s real simple. You know failure’s coming and when it does, you have to be prepared.

1. Recognise it for what it is, a set back, not a fatal flaw, those are rare. Just a setback.

2. Think about it, write about it a little in your diary, and talk about it a little bit with at least one person you trust.

3. Ask yourself, what one thing, maybe two, you can really learn from that setback. And then you stand up straight, take a deep breath and move forward because what you must realise is that, improving yourself, your confidence, your goals, your achievements is always an erratic process.

 

You want a positive trend to be your average, think about a stock chart. It’s always going to go up on average, but sometimes you have setbacks. How high is that trend line? How fast do you make progress? Well, it really does depend on how you deal with those down moments more than the up moments. So plan for failure, know that it exists, don’t let it surprise you, and when it happens, admit it, embrace it, own it, think about it, write about it, talk about it, then start your ascent again. And always be thankful for the lesson(s) learned  from them.

 

 

©Etta D. Richards

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