You Choose to Fail?

A few days ago i received an email from a potential employer telling me that i did not get into an internship program i desperately wanted to get into. For the first ten minutes after reading the email, all i kept thinking was that i had failed again and that i was better if i just stopped trying. Miraculously i happened to stumble upon an article, which reminded me of all the valid reasons why i should not quit trying and a quote, which told me why i would succeed if i put my mind to achieving something A few days later i watched a video by Brian Tracy, which shared a few keys to success and then i realised that there was some sort of conspiracy to make me succeed.

When i fail at something i was very sure that i was going to succeed at, my first step is to put my self down. Once i spent a whole week wallowing in self-pity just because my plans for my birthday had failed. Another time, i kept on putting myself down because i had procrastinated so much that i couldn't study enough for an exam. The good news is that i didn't fail- read: get an F, E or D.

When we realise that we have a bad habit, like not using our talents or not studying enough or not developing our ideas, our eyes suddenly open to the opportunities around which come with changing the habit. We resolve to do everything we can to become better people and we set off on a journey to self development.

 For the first few days, we are all pumped up and eager to do everything it takes to get better. We wake up with a smile on our faces and read every inspirational quote we can find. However when we realise that it takes more effort to adapt to our new lifestyles because the excitement is gone, we pull our brakes.

We actually give up earlier, but we wait for our first failure or error to admit it to ourselves and throw in the towel. We begin to give excuses why we can't change and begin to believe that, maybe, we are one of those people who will live a lonely life and die alone; that our bad habits or character traits are part of us and cannot be changed; that we can't succeed at anything. Slowly, we sink back into our seats of indifference and our lives go back to the way it was before we had one of our many 'aha moments'.

Many of the people we see who have succeeded had to work very, very hard for it. They had to make a lot of sacrifices and choose the pain of discipline because they really wanted to succeed. They failed, gathered some courage, tried again, failed and the cycle repeated itself until they succeeded. Obviously sometimes they gave up for a little while until they had the strength to try again- P.S. we all know that they are not super humans.

The key to success does not lie in refusing to fail but rather in refusing to remain a failure. You are allowed sometime to cry, yell, take some time off, get distracted for a while and recharge your battery. But you are not permitted to abandon your dreams and walk away; that is what cowards do. 

So take all the time you need- fuel your mind with inspiration from other people's success stories, look for an alternative route to achieving your goal or even invite someone to go on the journey with you THEN make a come back- with all the dramatic music etc.

The world needs you to be a better person. will you choose to be selfish and deprive us of that because you run into some car troubles or will you choose to arrive in style, on a bicycle?