Failure is one of those F words that we have grown to hate.

Can you think of how many times you thought YOU were a failure? Perhaps you…

1. Didn’t finish school
2. Didn’t get that promotion
3. Didn’t go on the vacation you promised the kids
4. Didn’t follow through with your intentions
5. Didn’t make the sales quota AGAIN this month…

Have we failed though?

One school of thought is that failure is when you stop trying.

I prefer Croesus’s view – the wealthy philosopher who advised Cyrus King of Persia. He said –

“I am reminded O King and take this lesson to heart, that there is a wheel on which the affairs of men revolve and its mechanism is such that it prevents ANY man from being ALWAYS fortunate.”

This made me think that at some point – stuff wearing failure outfits – will turn up in our lives. Sometimes we will be directly responsible, sometimes things will happen that we have no control over (economic downturns, other people’s decisons etc). But as night turns to day shit is going to turn up in our lives – GUARANTEED!

I prefer to not talk about failure but rather examine what I have learnt from every so called “failure” situation in my life. I am careful not to overanalyze any one event. Sometimes over a period of time, I can see why I needed to come off the track I was on and redirect my efforts.

My journey up to this point has been quite circuitous and filled with lots of failure – all of which I am truly grateful for …now.

I know that as a result of my failings –  I am infinitely more courageous and resilient and that nothing will keep me down for too long.

Sure I have “down” days and shit is still happening (like last week Sunday when I got up – my fridge had stopped working <——–this is one of the beyond your control scenarios – refrigerators fail!) However luckily for me, a member of my master mind group had provided an excellent resource who shows up as Mr. Pariag who promptly came othe following Monday to fix my fridge and ensure that the electricity problem would not recur.

Whatever you may think you’ve failed at in life is dead and gone. Whatever you think you’ll fail at in the future is yet to come. Just remember that there is something much bigger operating in our lives and perhaps we were meant to “fail” so as not to injure ourselves, get into business with that person, leave that job that’s making us ill, leave that spouse that mentally abuses us…you get the picture?

Think of failure as temporary defeat.

Napoleon Hill in The Master-Key to Riches said:

 “Anyone can quit when the going is hard! Anyone can feel sorry for himself when temporary defeat overtakes him, but self-coddling was no part of the character of those whom the world has recognized as great The approach to the power within cannot be made by self-pity. It cannot be made through fear and timidity. It cannot be made through envy and hatred. It cannot be made through avarice and greed….It is not a philosophy of achievement that the world needs. It is a rededication of the old and tried principles which led unerringly to the discovery of that power from within which “moves mountains.”

Failure develops this power if we but stop proclaiming that “we’ve failed yet again!” This power expresses itself in thoughts, ideas, plans and purposes.

Failure is your friend. Don’t be afraid to fail!