The fear of failure can freeze us in our tracks. It can keep us from even contemplating doing something or even checking out what something is. Somewhere along the line we learn to be repulsed by anything remotely resembling failure. If we can’t do it right the first time we don’t want to do it at all. If we can’t be a master of something then why bother? If we can’t be good at something right away, then there must be something really soul connected in it which drives us to do it. Because only a passion or a calling or being driven could explain why someone would do something they know they will fail at again and again and again. We even wonder if they know that they are failing. If they understand they are inept, have no talent, don’t get it, are less than and will never reach the goal.
Sometimes they don’t, but more often than not they do. Sometimes they don’t care because they have such joy in the doing, but that’s not always the case either. In fact, it often belittles what they are doing, putting it down, seeing it as less that other people’s efforts because it isn’t meeting some preconceived standard, doesn’t make things seem easy, doesn’t feed into our need to excel and never be in progress. What these people know, or have never forgotten, is that failing is the only way to move forwards. Each of us, each and every one of us knew this coming into this life before we could ever speak. Each of us knew this and joyfully participated in it. We knew this when we worked to roll over. We figured this out when we started to crawl. We became expert at this when we learned to walk. We failed over and over and over again. We didn’t know or care to judge our efforts as lacking, have any fear over what we would look like or what people would think. We fell and cried because of the surprise, pain and frustration. We expressed ourselves, let it go, set up and tried again.
Somewhere along the line we forgot this very simple thing. That to walk, to move upwards we had to fail. Over and over again. That failing was just fine, that how we got there was just fine, that feeling the hard feelings, taking the knocks, and having to try again was just fine. Because eventually we would get there. Not to become an expert, not to look good or make people behave differently towards us, but to be fully who we are, an upright person. All of that experience, that wisdom is still in us. That deep knowing that failing is just a part of the process is so ingrained in us we can’t lose it even if we try. So if we stop trying, it will come back. That’s when we remember that the possibilities for our life are limitless.
