Attempting to succeed means you will fail sometimes

The only way never to fail is never to try. If you try enough times, eventually you will fail.
People who try hard enough to improve their lives learn to regard failing first as inevitable, then as desirable, if not in a particular instance, then in general. If they don’t fail sometimes they aren’t trying hard enough.
This inevitability occurred to me recently when watching some sports championship. The best players, no matter how good, don’t win every championship. Not only do they lose, but they lose big. They get the biggest spotlight as leading a team to lose. They lose games and seasons, but they don’t give up.
Muhammad Ali lost by unanimous decision. Michael Jordan lost big games. Everybody lost big games.
How you get back into competition is one of the major challenges for succeeding, because you can’t succeed without failing along the way. To losers and victims that sentence probably sounds like reason not to try. To winners it sounds like a recipe for learning about yourself and life.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. MarieS

    Babe Ruth is remembered for his lifetime achievement of 714 home runs, not for the 1330 career strikeouts. Hank Aaron struck out 1383 times but is remembered for his 755 home runs.
    If you don’t swing at the ball, you can never get the home run.

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