By Carolina Amore
Personal Experiences
Carolina Amore
With any endeavor comes the possibility of failure. If we were to remove the potential of that outcome, what would you strive to achieve? Whether the specific goal is toward physical fitness, professional excellence or personal change, many plans have been given up due to fear of failure.
The new year is upon us, and the resolutions that come with it. Each year, over 50 percent of people make New Year’s resolutions, and nearly every study claims that 80 percent of those resolutions will be deserted by February.
New Year’s resolutions come with misguided expectations of the self. Each year, it is an excuse to commit to a particular goal finally, but with the high expectations around committing to a “resolution,” people typically give up.
Mistakes and failures are a natural part of life, and they are bound to happen when trying to change any aspect of life. Rather than shaming yourself for the occasional slip-up and deeming yourself a failure, keep making mistakes; it is how you become more robust and learn how to handle what comes next.
Author John Maxwell once said, “Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.” People often think that their accomplishments set the value of their worth. While outstanding achievements are a part of someone’s character, what truly sets an individual apart from the rest, and makes them unique, is their failures – and most importantly, what happened next.
A massive part of the human experience is the capability to strive through adversity. There will always be obstacles that make a goal seem impossible, but the true success lies in getting back up after falling.
Resilience is what Maxwell meant by “fail forward.” Instead of completely giving up on a problematic goal, allow yourself the courtesy of the human experience. Fail, make a mistake, and tomorrow try again.
If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, and a few weeks into the journey you spend a whole day eating off-plan, there is no reason to quit. Even if it was three days of not following the program, start over on the fourth.
True success often comes after a string of failures. J.K. Rowling’s journey is a great example of what happens when you believe in yourself despite failure. She is one of the most famous and successful authors of our time. But when she finished her first Harry Potter book in 1995, twelve significant publications rejected her manuscript.
Her current success is no secret, so this alone shows how perseverance through failure is necessary.
If you stick around long enough to see it, there can be a beautiful world on the other side of failure. Today’s society is accustomed to instant gratification thanks to advances in technology and how easily accessible many needs are.
Having hard-to-accomplish goals is an essential part of life. They teach us dedication, determination, and discipline. Anything worth having will not be easy to obtain, and it takes the strength to fail and the courage to wait for yourself, which creates a truly successful person.