Sometimes you try. Sometimes you fail. Sometimes you succeed unexpectedly. But just because you might fail, does that mean you shouldn't try?
We have now passed the season of giving and charity and entered into the season of making ourselves better. I'm thinking this traditionally started because the season of giving and charity made us realize how ungiving and uncharitable we are. Not being able to tolerate ourselves, it became an American tradition to make New Year's Resolutions.
Sometimes our resolutions have to do with ourselves, our health, studies, whatever. Other times it is relational, how we are involved with family, friends, strangers. And still other times there are spiritual goals regarding prayer and other disciplines. Then, there are just random resolutions. (You really need to click that.)
One thing I don't like about resolutions is my proclivity to fail at them. I normally don't follow through too well. I don't know how many times I've tried doing something physical and stopped. So I hesitate to try the same resolution or goal.
Let's step off resolutions for a second. I think we would all like to do something, or things, that we just don't think we'd be able to do, but would like to. For some reason, we don't have the time, don't make the time, or are too worried about success to try something that might just be amazing. For me, sometimes I think I don't want to try because if I do that, then I'm taking away from time I could be doing other things. Usually at the end, I don't do anything, then the time is really wasted.
Instead of standing still, I have decided this, that life is long enough to try something and fail at it, but too short not to try to succeed. Even if you fail, chances are you've got 60-75 years ahead of you (my readers, at least) to try other things, to succeed and fail. But looking back in 10, 20, 50 years and saying, "I should have tried," means you had a lot of time to recover if you fell on your face.
I don't know what my thing is that I need to try, but I'm sure it's out there. Probably do a tour, or a road trip, or something. But whatever that is, if it goes wrong, I can recover. I mean, even bankruptcy is off your record in 7 years. I'd only be 32! (My parents would love to hear me say that, ha.)
So, this year, 2009, your assignment is this:
Fail.
Fail boldly. Fall hard. Get a few scratches, bruise up, cry to your friends. Then get up, and tell the story of you doing whatever it is you wanted to do. A great story happens when a person does what most people normally wouldn't do. So, go make a story.
Happy New Year,
Dan
10 comments:
1) This is an awesome entry. So many people, including myself, have a ridiculous fear of failure that keeps us from doing so many amazing things. My question is this: When and why does this develop? Or is it something we're born with?
2) I love that the word "succeed" is linked to the Post-It webpage. Hilarious.
~Krista
Anonymous Krista - Thanks! I'm glad you like it. :)
As to your question, I'm not sure when this develops. I think it's both nature and nurture, and a different mix of each for different people. The more we tie ourselves up with the "necessities" of life (work, schedules, etc.) the less we have a chance of seeing anything else. It may be more of a perspective issue at times than an actual fear.
Post-Its are the biggest successful failure ever.
I like it! :)
Lauren - Thanks! Everyone needs an invitation to fail. You know what they say (and if you don't, I'm going to tell you): If you fall, fall on your face; at least you'll be falling forward.
And thanks for the shout-out on your year-end blog!
I've already failed big time - it was called the Peace Corps. So I'm one step behind you, Dan... or one step ahead of you, depending on how you look at it.
Does this mean I have to think of a new resolution? ;)
Anders - If you want to make it easy, try to think of a resolution, and fail at thinking of one. ;)
I've already failed once in 2009! Last night I stayed longer at work, hoping to bank, but instead I just had to do a lot more work, for not a ton of payoff. But I did get more than I would have, so I guess it was a success. Failure is full of fun surprises.
Very nice. "Fail boldly."- I love that. I am going to have that be my mantra this year. Hopefully it won't spill too much into my course work. hehe
Blessings,
April
April - Hey neighbor! Yeah, it's kinda like ripping off Martin Luther's "Sin boldly." But creativity is concealing your resources, right?
Good luck on the course work. That would not be a good place to fail! Unless you shoot for A+ and your fail is an A. :)
does this mean i should risk the biggest failure of my life and move to hawaii?? this isn't a rhetorical question either. i want you to answer it for me. :)
Rach - You know I wouldn't want you a whole ocean away! Ha. We'll chat about that and many more things soon enough.
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