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Steps of Failure

 


How many experiences of failure does it take before the average person gives up on a goal or quits walking down a pathway to a desired objective? Three times? Six times? How about less than one? Research shows that the average quest toward a major life goal is abandoned before the first significant setback.

How is that possible? We all hear stories of the perseverance and resilience exhibited by people who refused to quit and eventually saw their aspirations come to fruition. But the vast majority quit before their first real failure.

We have learned to view failing as equal with being a failure. One has nothing to do with the other. The first is an experience in a moment in time. The second is a mindset.

I would venture to say someone who gives up before experiencing a major setback has certainly failed. However, the person who continues to get back up, learns from past mistakes, and continues to press forward cannot possibly be a failure because she has conquered the most dangerous dragon of all: her own fear.

But most will succumb to that dragon. The fear morphs into anxiety and begins to control their thoughts and behaviors. Anxiety forces them to experience failure in advance. And it is not the failure that causes them to quit, it is the fear of it.

We must learn to view failure not as the end of the staircase to success, but as common and even necessary – albeit painful – steps along the way. And we must overcome our fear of the inevitable. No great staircase of success came without many steps of failure along the way. 


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