“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” ~ Denis Waitley
Failure
Is there a Life without failure? If you ask me: no, there is not! Why? Because that is my personal experience. Let me be very clear about Life. From my point of view Life is simply a Miracle with a capital M. Life serves us and teaches us. Life (or you can call it God, Universe) is there For you. But do not go further so fast.
4 Things Failure Can Teach YOU About Life
1. There is a Higher Will (than yours)
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” ~ Isaiah 55:9
A couple of times in my life I wanted things badly and thought I could not go even one step further if I would not be able to get this or achieve that. Do you think that God (Universe, Life) cares about tantrums or stubbornness?
Not at all.
I got everything I wanted that much when I was not dying for it; when that thing or achievement meant far less to me than before. We get it when we do not want it anymore. (My mentor told me that once – so true). This first point leads to the next one.
2. Stay humble
“All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power. If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” ~ Lao Tzu
This one is simple: if you do not know it by yourself due to your lovingly kind personality, or your lovingly kind parents who raised you, at some point you have to learn it anyway.
Sometimes childhood can’t teach us everything we need to know. Whatever is missing from our system, will be filled later.
I believe that we are connected in a way that we can’t skip important life lessons receiving from each other. The Universe (Life, God) will first gently but firmly knock on our head, slap on our face first then repeat it until we understand and learn the lesson. It’s personal: everyone has their course material to go through – better to put your helmet on!
3. In any form...
“Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.” ~ William Shakespeare
.. can God come to you. Anytime. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it still can. God is everywhere and you can call it by names. When hitting the rock bottom, you can place your palm on the concrete, feel it and pause.
Ask questions when you are down.
What happened? Why was it supposed to happen? What can it teach me? Be kind to yourself. It’s so important and you have to deal with yourself in a way as you would with a dear friend of yours. Failure can teach you how (valuable) relationships work and that the most important relationship is with your own self.
4. Gratefulness
“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.” ~ Maya Angelou
What can you be grateful for when you lose a job/partner/money/pet/home/opportunity? For everything else you still have! Very nice exercise when you write down 10 things you are grateful for; try it! Here are some from my list:
- for being able to spend time with my elderly parents
- for the Indian summer we were having
- for my entire summer when after a hard period (failure as such) I was able to
travel two months or so - for having arms and legs (not everybody has them and they might wish them
the most!) - for the opportunities yet to come
- for the new relationships that seem to appear.
Wonderful, isn’t it? You can do that too. It is a beautiful play, a dance: we graze the wall, we smile at our partners, we shine, we fall, we arise! Failure can be nothing but only the other side of the coin and through it ‘the whole show’ there is is just Divine Providence.
What about you? What is your outlook on failure? And what is one valuable lessons failure has taught you?
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Eva Szucs
I’m a forever searcher for contentment, meaning and purpose, born Hungarian, a West Europe-lover, dreamer, seeking happiness through self-expression and presence You can connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, and my blog
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