It's a celebration b****. Man, do I love success, but I also love failure. Am I sick? Nah. I believe they go hand in hand. If you succeeded at something, it’s most likely because you learned how to do so through failure or multiple failures. In no way is this going to be an article suggesting we all should get participatory ribbons. Instead, this one will maybe make you look at both success and failure a little differently.
How many of us know a person who was “the shit” in high school and that was their peak? We can pinpoint them, whether they were the star athlete, the most attractive person around, or incredibly good at school. Shoot, I mean, I fit all three😜. Well, hopefully by now they are far removed from celebrating those feats and are on to new ones. The issue is, most people peak and fear failure. They think if they try something new, and suck at it, then they are a failure. This hinders the possibility of them finding success in future endeavors. I advise you to not fall into this cycle, instead think of things in a short-term way. Having a short term memory for both success and failure is the way to go in order to constantly improve and grow.
Often times, we linger for wayyy too long on either a success or a failure. If you take a look at the best athletes or the best business people, they have very short term memory on both success and failure. If they get dunked on one play they might make a big play on the opposite end just a few seconds later, or if they didn't land a client, they move on and work to land the next.
I believe you should celebrate any success you may have, whether it's as minuscule as remembering to floss your teeth today or landing your dream job. If you celebrate for too long or act like you have arrived at your destination, you start to get complacent, comfortable and will probably stunt your growth. The same goes for failures. Recognize them, learn from them, then get on with your life. Dwelling on the past usually just makes us sick. We beat ourselves up saying things like What if I had done… If only I knew this back then…yadda, yadda. I even find myself guilty of that saying, “What if I knew back in high school what I know now about training?” Well, guess what? I didn’t. All we can do is live, learn, and be better. This only happens if we are willing to take the good with the bad, the successes with the failures.
I love failing. It probably is a sickness but I'm honestly happy when I fail at something. You can learn sooo much from failing. My first attempt at writing this article was a failure, so what did I do? Tried again in a slightly different manner. My biggest most recent failure was failing to complete the Beast Tamer Challenge. I had some success while attempting it and some failure as well. It was a great learning experience, as well as a humbling one.
Not allowing yourself to get too high or too low in accomplishments and failures will keep you constantly motivated to do better and to be better. Don't limit what you want to accomplish based on the fear of possibly failing. You'll never reach your true potential constantly playing it safe. Whatever the end result may be, get out there and try some things you've never done, have confidence, and learn from it.