What’s in a word?
Can you agree if I tell you that ‘failure’ is one of the worst words in everyday parlance, in human vocabulary? You may not agree with me but most painful human experiences are offshoots of ‘failures’ in the manner the world defines it. At school, a child who doesn’t meet defined and usually flawed assessment criteria set forth by the system is labeled as one who ‘failed’ exams. People ‘fail’ driving tests. Relationships ‘fail’. People are labeled ‘failures’ in almost any activity as long as desired outcomes aren’t met at some expected point in time. Yet, failure could be a stepping stone to success.
Lack of success
What is failure, anyway? The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a number of definitions: omission of occurrence or performance; lack of success; a falling short; one that has failed.
Failure to get certain thing done in life is inevitable. The journey of life is fraught with ups and downs – failures. We see people succeed at performing some activity today, fall short tomorrow, succeed the following day, fail again thereafter, and so on.
How do you respond?
How do you handle failure, even though failure could be a stepping stone to success? If at some point in your life, you fail to attain a desired goal, does that make you useless or someone that has failed? Is it possible that you failed because you did not try hard enough and gave up too soon, or because you are pursuing a wrong goal (not aligned with your natural gift), or because you wanted answers overnight? Look at it this way.
I mentioned in my book that a gifted sportsman for example, could be forced to study Biology. He will learn to draw and label parts of a grasshopper instead of playing soccer. So, if he flukes Biology exams, he will view himself as a ‘failure’. The school system will labe them ‘failures’. Is it indeed so? Well, does that also imply that those who can cleverly label a grasshopper and may earn a PhD doing so are not failures? (This is a conversation for another day). Yet, failure could be a stepping stone to success.
In this day and age, I believe the narrative has changed, or needs to change here and now. And please, listen. If you are in the process of wanting to get something done and apparently things aren’t going according to plan, take a step back and consider the following:
Try this
◦ Ask yourself: am I doing the right thing to begin with? (And by the way, what is the right thing? Answer: that which aligns with and takes advantage of the affordances of your natural gift/s)
◦ What if you are doing the right thing but still failing to reach your desired outcome? I believe it might be due to not having worked hard enough to a point of excellence in exercising your gift such that you can attain your desired life goal. You need to keep on working because there is a process to every human endeavor. You don’t sow corn seeds today and harvest corn the following week. Nature has set an amount of time for corn to mature and be harvested. When you attempt to harvest before that set time, there will be no mature corn and you may be told that you are a failure. But, are you? No! The process for corn to mature to the point of harvest must be completed. See what I mean?
◦ Does ‘failure’ in the manner the world defines it mean you have fallen short or you lack success? Not at all. Failure as a matter of fact can be an excellent indicator that you’re not mature enough as yet to become your true higher self. In other words, when you fail, it is nothing but a pointer to the fact that you need to work harder and think differently. Matter of fact, failure is an indicator that although you may be doing the right thing with your life, you just aren’t good enough yet for the world to acknowledge your success at exercising your unique gift. So, keep developing and refining your gift/s even if you failed at some point.
So…
◦ So what happens if you have failed many times in almost everything you have tried? Chances are, you might be one of those people always in a hurry to try this and try that. Trying many things may be an indicator that you are not sure yet what you want in life. Those who know exactly what their gifts are focus on that one gift and make their performance of it excellent.
◦ If you fail many times in exercising that ONE gift, it is simply an indication that you are hardworking; you can only fail where you are putting in some effort trying to succeed at something. Many agencies rejected Supermodel Tyra Banks when she started out. Was she a failure and did she later fail? No! Did she change careers? No. She was certain of her gift of modeling. Therefore, failure ought to be nothing but fuel or a catalyst to push you hard until you attain excellence and success.
Turn adversity to success
So what am I saying here? Embrace failure and use it to reach for the stars in your chosen career path. Just be sure you are experiencing failure while ‘pushing’ within your gift. Don’t know yet what your gift is? Read books that can help you find yours. Be sure to not push yourself to the limits pursuing what someone else suggested to you or pursuing ‘the hottest career nowadays’; that would be a recipe for failure as the world defines it.
Jan Koum and Brian Acton left Yahoo! and went looking for jobs at Facebook in 2007. They were rejected and they must have gone home feeling like failures. But that one ‘failure’ was their greatest blessing as one thing led to the other and they developed the WhatsApp Messenger app, which the same Facebook that refused them jobs bought in 2014 for 19 billion USD. This is a true story. Do you now realize how much you are being weak (Proverbs 24: 10) and sinning (Proverbs 24:9) against the Creator who gave you gifts when you succumb to thoughts of so-called failure? Some of you even entertain self-pity and cry? Why?
Consider this
If only you could be prayerful (Luke 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 5: 17), understand the signs of the times like the sons of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12: 32) and have faith (Hebrews 11: 6) in the Creator and in the abilities (Romans 11: 29; James 1: 17) He has invested in you, you will see clearly that ‘failure’ ain’t nothing but a stepping stone to your greatness.
Are you locked up somewhere in a corner, physically or in your mind, because you have ‘failed’ at a career goal you want to achieve badly? Do yourself a favor, get up right now and move yourself to success with your unique ideas and gifts. You have what it takes to make it!
It is your turn to impact the world. Use your failures to rise to the top!
My books (a course on self-discovery and self-development for career success) Do Yourself a Favor. Get Up! and Move! and its Study Guide are available on Amazon.com. Click here.
Visit: https://rolandrayk.com for more useful resources