We have all faced failure at some point in our lives and most of the time we think of failure as a bad thing that diminishes our value as human beings and takes us to an emotional state of frustration, sadness, anger and any negative emotion you can think of.

But have you ever wondered what failure is or what it means?

The definition of failure is:

” The lack of success or the inability to meet expectations”

So if you think about it success and failure is a subjective term based on what you are defining as “successful”.

When you fail, are you really basing that on your expectation or the expectations of others?

Many times we base our failures on the expectations of others.

An example could be that you feel like a failure because someone that you admire and care about sets an expectation you really don’t buy into, and influences you to achieve a certain goal that you just are not passionate about and and oo not giving your all and feeling like a failure.

But is that really a failure?

If someone else sets expectations for you that you can’t and don’t want to meet, then you are not a failure, and you should not feel bad not wanting to follow that path.

Now if you set an expectation for yourself and fail, 

Guess what?

 You can try again as many times as you want, as long as your expectations are something you are passionate about.

Like trying to run a marathon, if you have never done it, there is a good chance you will not run the full 26 miles the first time you start to run. You will have to prepare by training a few miles every day, then increasing your training until you have the stamina to withstand a full marathon.

During all these training sessions you will fail and learn about how your body reacts, which shoes, socks, you will need to be able to finish.

As everything it will not be perfect but if you are willing to accept failure as a good thing and a learning experience you will see things in a different light and be open to grow as a person.

Changing the term failure from a negative term to a positive will allow you to take advantage of the opportunities that failure offers you.

Failure is a big part of life and you need to learn to embrace and use it as a motivator to reach your goals.

E. Luna