Changing my definition of failure- Let me explain…
I have always thought of the word failure as a bad thing. Now I don’t. Well, actually, I don’t even want the word FAILURE in my vocabulary. I choose EXPERIENCE. Everything in this life is for our experience. Some feel good, some bad. What I am hoping for is learning. If I had something feel really bad, then I don’t want to do that again. Then again, some things we can’t choose whether it happens to us or not- even a better reason to chalk this up to experience.
I went to my 30-year reunion a few weeks ago- now that was an experience! Haha. What I loved about it was everyone is now close to 50 years old. And nice. We have all been through a lot in life since we hung out together when we were 17. Some looked at me with sad eyes,”You have had a hardlife!” What?! Are you kidding me?! I have had a fantastic life and a ton of experience in many areas like finance, death, spirituality, health. I am happy. Blessed. Many people would think of some of these things in my life as failures. I did at one time as well, but have changed how I look at failure. I have learned so much that I wouldn’t take any of it back. Actually, I feel bad for some people that haven’t had the experiences I have had, but then I wouldn’t wish them on anyone. Maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense until you’ve gone through something hard. I love these things I have gone through because they have shaped the person that I am today- that’s not a failure to me. I wake up each day grateful to be alive. Some people didn’t wake up today- think about that!
Another funny thing that I was reminded of when I went to my reunion was the elections for class officers. My kids are going through this right now so I told them about this experience… The first week that I was in high school I decided to run for class president. Nobody else was running against Greg because everyone knew better. He was obviously very popular from the other Jr. High and everyone liked him. But I didn’t really care, I guess, because I stayed in the election. I thought it was a good way to get to know more people. Greg and I went together to introduce ourselves to the Sophomore classes for a few hours one morning before the election and I got to know Greg. We had so much fun! Yes, of course, he won, but I don’t think of it as a FAIL. No, I gained a really good friend that I couldn’t have made another way. We even went to a dance together the next year. Seeing him at the reunion reminded me of how we met and how some people look at an “election” with winners and losers. It’s not the perspective I choose- I became a better person and had a lot of fun doing it.
Yes, people might say I’m looking at life through rose-colored glasses, but why not? We get to choose how to look at each situation as we want. Why not look at it in the best possible way? It feels a lot better to look at life as a series of experiences instead of a bunch of PASS / FAIL. Now there are also “failures” in business, schooling, relationships, oh heck- people probably would say I have failed in some of those areas and many other things such as growing a garden and raising children. I choose to look at it from a different perspective: from learning and WOW- what an experience!
How are you going to choose to look at life? This pic says it all…PASS / FAIL hurts your head!
