Written by Edgar Luna

When I was growing up maybe during my elementary school years, that’s when I remember having those first fears of failure.

Maybe you had a similar experience as me where you would have the courage to lift your hand and answer a question from your teacher then finding out that you did not have the right answer then hearing the laughing and comments of “what a dumb answer” or something like that.

Then after that experience you might start to question yourself and not want to go over that again.

Maybe you want to try something like roller skating and you do not try it because the one time you tried it you fell and it hurt, then everyone laughed at you.

So why go over that experience over and over again?

You start building a shell where you don’t want to try anything unless you are certain you will not get hurt and that no one will laugh at you.

You start building that fear of failure, of being vulnerable and getting hurt, and that is something that prevents us from growing and being able to experience new and wonderful things.

Now the reality is that in order to be successful you have to be willing and conscious that you will fail, there is no question about that.

No matter how good or prepared you are to do something you have to be conscious that you might fail.

However, if you are willing to try, accept and learn from failure, then you are on the right path to getting good at whatever you want to do.

Life is not about making everything perfect, it is about trying even though we might fail and get hurt.

Using the example of sports like basketball, a good pro basketball player is successful in making baskets less than 50% of the time. However if they want to score points they need to shoot , knowing they will fail more than half of their shots, regardless they do it.

Now how about you, do you take your shots?

Do you try even though you might fail?

What’s that thing you wish to do but will not because you don’t want to fail?

Maybe ride a bike, maybe find a job, maybe sing in public, maybe join a sports team, the list can be endless. However you need to be willing to fail and learn to deal with that vulnerability of failure and then acknowledge the failure and take the steps to learn from it.

Will people criticize or laugh at your failure?

There is a good chance that they will, however the people that do that are more likely to never try to do something scary or courageous, there will be people like you that will applaud your effort. You fall, you get up, it doesn’t matter how many times you fail, you try again. And after some time of being resilient you will see that you get better every time you try.

So, welcome failure as a blessing, as something that is a part of life and that will make you get better, embrace it.

Once you learn how to deal with failure and use it as a tool to improve yourself , you will have an advantage through your journey through life.

E. Luna