Failure is never failure

 
 Failure Isn't At Fault

"Failure separates those who think they want success from those who are determined to win. Failure narrows the playing field. The first people out are those that blame others, next out are those who lost interest. The weak go first. The strong learn to hang in there and keep bouncing back until they win."

The thin-skinned rarely win due to brittle egos and apprehensive attitudes. Thick skin comes from falling and failing. The falls produce wounds that heal and reveal a connection between resiliency and a peculiar resolve which accepts failure as a temporary condition. They accept both good and bad so not to forfeit the blessing of learning from both.

The thick-skinned prepare to win by increasingly expanding their willingness to endure pain in affirming the degree of true desire. They allow every challenge as opportunity in changes for better. They continue to learn that bitterness is poison and quickly purge its deadly influence on both their endurance and desire. They see a prize in every problem and potential in every person. They see their faults but never focus on them. They know that whatever is on the mind will eventually get in the mind. The power of positive word choice determines each choice of the next deed. Wasting time talking about everything that cannot change and about nothing that can is pointless. They don't get mad; they get glad.

They don't deny their feelings nor recklessly rely on their feelings. They acknowledge their fears yet have learned to take action in spite of them. They don't deny an awful diagnosis but do reject the verdict of a bad prognosis. Quitting isn't part of their vocabulary and thus they find winning a natural offspring of the power they choose to give words. They know they must master their emotions rather than allow rude and raw emotions to master them.

Failure has yet to kill them and success has never defined them. They've been given the gift of get up, get over, and get on with whatever or whoever even hints at hindering them. There can be no real loss for them as they love to learn from each loss experienced. Isn't this a win-win way of referencing a world they've already begun to better? Whether a race is won or lost, they understand that their response to either outcome reveals their character, which is the best way to continue to build it. They don't let what will one day rot rule the winning Spirit in them that cannot.

They don't allow pride to drive them away nor shame to keep them away from the next opportunity or opposition. Failure drives the fear out and frees the winner inside to fully reside. They move forward by faith and don't need to see goodness to believe it's already come to pass.

Which one will you become?

It's a choice and no one can make it for you. You are a winner whether you accept it as truth or not. Gnawing on your not all that bad past is a sorrowful manner in which to pass your time. Time will deaden the measure of your regret. Yet, only the proper view of what God's victorious vision has always been for your future may be belated. We don't fear failure but we do use it as the excuse as to why we may never win. Such silly thinking helps the thin-skinned justify their active involvement in doing nothing. Criticism isn't the culprit and yesteryear isn't the enemy. Waiting around for something good to happen could happen but it won't and that's what's worrying you.

What's happening to you while you wait for nothing to beget nothing? I'll tell you: The enemy within you dims the light you'd like to lose. But, you're scared to death you actually might be forced to become part of this living. And with living, there will be your own higher expectations you will want to meet but maybe you're still stuck in "Have To" land. Allow me to forewarn you, it's a desert full of discouragement not brought about by circumstances gone awry, but a lie that your expectations will probably be at the level of your limitations. Acknowledge your real fear and you will take action in spite of it.

Guess what? You are "It" or are you?


Brian G. Jett