The Value of Failure

Failure.

Yeah, I know I've talked about this before, probably mentioned it a lot.  (Not gonna go hunt up the posts to link since there's probably a bunch of them because I am prone to failure; I'll leave the hunting to you if you care to do so.  I don't mind failing, thank you; I'd be a lot worse off if I did.)  Failure is an important part of life.  It's not something we enjoy but it is necessary.  We have to struggle in order to become strong.

Too often these days I see overprotectiveness on the part of society.  Folks want everything to be completely fair, completely even.  They seem to think that this levels the playing field.  Oh, it "levels" it alright--in the sense that it destroys competition.  Not allowing for the possibility of failure takes away the motivation to engage an obstacle.  We need to know that we cannot win every time at everything.  We need things to push against.  To remove all obstacles is to handicap a player.  If we don't push ourselves, we will never know what we are made of, we will never know what we can achieve.

Having too much opportunity and too much coddling is ultimately destructive to a sense of drive. 

We need to know what failure is like in order to learn to cope with the many storms of life.  We need to know how failure works so that we can learn how to become creative in dealing with unexpected outcomes.  We need to experience the feeling of failure in order to have understanding,  patience, and compassion for others.  We need to be deeply aware that failure is not the end; it is actually a threshold--the beginning of better things if only we keep trying.

Yesterday seemed like something of a failure to me because I was working hard at a plan that simply did not work out.  I knew right in the middle of things that it wouldn't but I had to see it through to be certain.  Of course, I was annoyed.  Anyone would be.  But after a big mug of tea and twenty minutes of quiet contemplation, I began to see this so-called failure as something really invigorating and I was challenged to see other ways of dealing with the issue.  I had trouble sleeping last night because I was excited for the morning to come so I could try a different way of resolving the problem.

No, I am not looking forward to the work that it will take to manage the situation--I love books and furniture, although I am certainly not fond of moving and re-organizing either one.  But I do plan to enjoy the fruits of this harvest.  No fruit is truly sweet until it is ripe.  Things will work out in due time.

Life is good.
I am so grateful.
And I'm gonna go get busy!