I Am Not Scared Of Failing Anymore

They say that failures are the pillars of success. All this while I used to dread this phrase, as I wasn’t sure of what it meant in reality. I’d repeat to myself often - “Failures? I mean that’s supposed to be bad, right? How can they lead to success?” I still recall this one incident when in school I had cried my heart out over a History test where I failed to attempt 12 marks owing to the lack of time. I’d just wail and wail until it was my mother who assured me that this was the first time it happened to me and I should just relax. 

Point is for some unknown reason I’ve always been very scared of failure, and in my lifetime I’d do everything to ensure I don’t experience it. I’d put in extra hours, work on weekends, put my health at risk but try to hold on, no matter what. Back then little did I realise that things don’t always work out the way you want them to, and when it doesn’t all you can go is sit back and understand that it’s perfectly alright to fail, and that you don’t have to beat yourself up about it. 

Of the little that I’ve experienced over the days I’ve noted that whenever this emptiness and failure hits, the next thing that follows after is always something grand, extra and definitely better than the previous one. Whether or not it’s meant for the long term is of course debatable, but the takeaway is that the future is promising. Also, it’s very important to mention here that failure, pain and your downfall would teach you the maximum number of lessons which otherwise you wouldn’t know existed, and perhaps for the first time you’d encounter a self that’s so strong and wise.  

You see I got nothing against happiness. Who doesn’t want to be happy in this life, right? But, most of the wise people say that it’s pain and misery alone that fills up this life, and that happiness just comes in bits and pieces and that’s fine, you can’t really whine about it now, can you? What you can do instead is let yourself feel the pain, immerse yourself in the process and come out stronger and happier than ever. 

Is that possible at all? Most definitely. You ask how? Look at the countless number of folks in Ukraine, look at the women in Afghanistan thriving under the Taliban regime? Have all of them ceased to live? Are they not striving to progress from this current terrible situation? If they can cling onto a ray of hope that encourages them to live every day, then why can’t we, who are actually living a life of privilege?

I don’t know about the future but at present I can proudly claim that I am not scared of being scarred and failing again, as it’s only through this failure that I have gotten to realise my real worth, my expertise and the strong lass that I really am. When at a distance I spot failure beckoning at me, I just laugh it off and declare, “Try me.”

Image courtesy: Janbaby on Pixabay