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by Glen Depke
The word failure has such a strong meaning in our culture yet I am happy to say that I fail all the time. Actually I can say that I fail on a daily basis and I hope you do too!
Looking at the picture to the right, is the absolute representation of our current view of success and failure. What if? I love “what ifs?” What if the arrow of success and failure pointed in the same direction? What if the failure actually created the successes? What if you could not have one without the other? Hmmm….
Let’s take a look at some of history’s failures.
How about Abraham Lincoln? Did you know that he has a long list of significant failures? Take a look:
- Lost job, 1832
- Defeated for legislature, 1832
- Failed in business, 1833
- Sweetheart (Ann Rutledge) died, 1835
- Had nervous breakdown, 1836
- Defeated for Speaker, 1838
- Defeated for nomination for Congress, 1843
- Lost renomination, 1848
- Rejected for Land Officer, 1849
- Defeated for Senate, 1854
- Defeated for nomination for Vice-President, 1856
- Again defeated for Senate, 1858
How about Michael Jordan?
- Missed more than 9,000 shots in his career
- Lost almost 300 games
- On 26 occasions he was entrusted to take the game winning shot, and missed
- He have failed over and over and over again in his life
I know of a chiropractor that has an incredibly thriving business that is almost unimaginable. Through the years he has recognized that for every 10 patients that come into his office only 1 will follow through with his protocol. So what does he do? He actually celebrates each and every patient that is not going to return, because he knows that for every 9 failures he will find one long term patient. His failures are the drive behind an unimaginable business.
This is just two of the failures that we can share but this list is endless.
You get the picture, so let’s move on.
I am most often discussing the functional aspect of health on the blog and newsletter but there is a very important aspect of health that rarely gets attention and that is our mental, emotional, vibrational and/or spiritual health. When we discuss these areas, we are talking about the very foundation of your being and a significant directive in your current health state, whether this deemed good or bad. Did you know that our culture’s energy behind the word failure generally causes significant issues with individuals on the very core level of health?
So really, how does this happen?
We learn very early that failure is very bad because failure is always tied into judgment. Based on what most of us learned in our early years from our primary care givers, schools, government and many religions; when we fail and do something wrong, we are typically punished. This becomes a deeper core value and energy that we then continue the rest of our lives.
Then what happens with that energy?
Typically speaking, when we do something wrong or we fail, this ends up being suppressed. Since most of us have such a strong tie into punishment following failure, when we suppress this energy and we have not been punished, what do you think we do? If you answered that we punish ourselves you are exactly correct.
Scary, isn’t it!
Scary, isn’t it!
I actually see this with my clients all the time. Past history of failures tied into judgment, history of failures being punished, long term suppression of failures and ultimately poor expressions of health to complete the cycle of punishment that many live with.
So where did this challenge really start?
It generally starts with our primary care givers, which is most often our parents. This could also be an older sibling, grandparents or even outside hired help. This is basically the people or person that played the most significant role in raising you from birth to about 5 to 7 years old.
Now what?
Well, there are two directives here to look at. The first is what do you do when this has already been a long term pattern and what do we do with the children growing up.
Next week in part 2, we will address new ways of being to shift this for you and for you children. You won’t want to miss part 2…
Let’s end today with some quotes from some very successful failures in our current culture as well as our history.
- They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward. ~Thomas Edison
- If your not failing every now and again, it’s a sign your not not doing anything very innovative. ~Woody Allen
- There is no such thing as failure. There are only results. ~Tony Robbins
- Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. ~Winston Churchill
- The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. ~Buddha
- The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. ~Lloyd Jones
- Nothing fails like success because we don’t learn from it. We learn only from failure. ~Kenneth Boudling
- You always pass failure on your way to success. ~Mickey Rooney
- You can’t have any successes unless you can accept failure. ~George Cukor
- Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. ~Henry Ford
- There are defeats more triumphant than victories. ~Michel de Montaign
