What
is failure? We all know part of that
answer, don’t we?
Failure
is missing a three-point conversion play in the final two minutes of the
football game.
Failure
is losing a boat-load of money in a
Failure
is a thousand other actions that do not bring the desired results.
But
none of them are worthy of shame.
~I
have a weak heart that requires surgery to repair. Am I to be shamed for this?
~President
Trump hasn’t been successful in getting a lot of his promises in play after ten
months as President. Should he be shamed
for that?
~The
Seahawks lost a close game yesterday? I
know, let’s shame them and call them bad names and curse them, even burn the
12-man flag. That will teach them.
Hardly.
Failure
happens. We sometimes lose. We don’t hit our sales quota, we miss a sale
to that eager buyer, we misunderstand our spouse in a critical relational
moment. Our bodies quit responding. We fail.
We are not to be shamed for it.
It happens.
On
the other side of these failures? A
learning moment. What is the
takeaway. What can we do better the next
time around?
Ah …
that is the piece we need to understand.
Maybe,
as Seth Godin says, “failure is required. Failure in the service of learning, of
experimenting, of making things – this is essential.”
Can
you imagine shaming a six-month-old baby we are pushing to learn to walk? No way.
It happens. They fall down, we
pick them back up.
I
think my point is made now.
Final
thought – be kind to yourself in this shaming issue as well. You are not a superman or woman. You will have off days, weak moments, and
sometimes our bodies just don’t work as we wish. The negative self-talk actually stops growth,
it stops finding the good and right solutions.
Allow yourself a moment of grace, a moment of growth, and your body a
moment of whatever it needs.
Maybe
I failed. So what. I am not a failure.
P Michael Biggs
Offering
Hope
Encouragement
Inspiration
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