If at first you don’t succeed….
You could finish that statement easily enough, couldn’t you? I’m sure most people are familiar with Vince Lombardi’s quote, “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” And Thomas Edison’s quote, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” is often cited as a positive spin on the scrapes and bruises which come along as the result of the struggle for success.
The truth is success doesn’t often come easy and quite often not on the first attempt. With perhaps a few rare exceptions, it would seem ridiculous for an author to expect to complete a book on the first draft. It goes through revisions, editing, and sometimes a complete rewrite. Hours and hours of design and redesign were poured out on the world’s significant engineering marvels. Inventors like Edison tried and tried again before seeing their visions come to fruition. Most paintings begin from a sketch or at least an idea, before they find their true form. Diamonds don’t come out of the ground with those perfect cuts and polish.
Yet, we often berate ourselves over failure or hang our heads at dismal results. We expect to sparkle on the first try. Why is it we are so hard on ourselves when failures and mistakes just help us to clarify the pathway? Often when we stumble, it’s because there is another way.
When you meet with an obstacle do you see only the closed door, or do you look around for the one which has opened? Is it really a dead end or just a fork in the road? No doubt, there are times we need to recognize when we are simply beating our heads against the wall, but even under those circumstances there may be another option. Perhaps we need to step back and look at the big picture. Even that proverbial wall we are bouncing against might be just what we need to see another way around the problems blocking our success.
The real question is whether we are willing to learn from those mistakes. Are we open to what they reveal about our plans? Can we use them to improve or change our navigational course? Are we simply going to dwell on them or make use of them?
As with most of these blog posts, they originate with me. Often the ideas come from things with which I’ve struggled. As I seek to encourage myself, I offer encouragement to you as well. Take heed of the signs along the path. Look for how your mistakes can help you achieve success. Open your eyes to the big picture to see if you really know what it is you are trying to accomplish and if that goal is the right goal for you.
Just in case you still need help, here are a few more inspiring quotes about persistence toward success:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success” – Dale Carnegie
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” – Booker T. Washington
“I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” – George S. Patton
“Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill
