“And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
Thomas Wayne
Failure is a part of life and a large part at that.
You see there can be no evolution without failure. If everything went well all the time, then you wouldn’t be learning some key lessons that will set you up for future success.
No one wants to failure, we are all human after all and a failure is a hard thing to take, but it is a necessary one.
No one chasing any form of success got there without failure. Even the great NBA legend Michael Jordan, one of the most successful athletes of all time famously spoke about how his failures made him a success.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan
So failure is inevitable, it’s part of our life.
The thing about a failure, about falling down is that we have a choice. We can either stay on our ass or get back up. We can admit what went wrong, take ownership and learn the lessons that this experience has shared with us.
Then we move on.
The most important thing is not to dwell. Do not get lost in your own frustrations, instead think about how you will get back up.
Because this is what matters when any failure hits us – how will we decide to get back up? we will find out a lot about our own character in these times and the character of those around us too
Take a recent example from my beloved world of boxing.
The once dominant heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua has experienced a dose of mortality with his first loss as a professional. Since this day many people have said many unjust things in my opinion.
But it is in his reaction to this failure that I have been most inspired and one which we can learn from. What did he do after this loss? did he blame an event or others? did he replace his team like many athletes do after losses? No, he simply came out, took ownership and vowed to reclaim what was once his.
This right here is an example to follow on why it’s important to think about how you will get back up. Will you find any excuse to justify your situation or will you take extreme ownership no matter what happened and focus on your return to success?
For me it’s not about falling down as this is inevitable for us all. It is about how we get back up, how we react to what life has thrown our way. It is in this, where we will discover out true character.
Even in defeat, with the world giving their opinions of everything he did or did not do. Anthony Joshua has stayed true to his mantra of “Stay Hungry, Stay Humble”.
We too can learn from this.
Let me leave the final words to the athlete who inspired this post himself and let you reflect on whether your going to stay on your ass or if you’re going to get back up.
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[…] knocked down happens, but staying on your ass is a choice. This is something I came to learn on several occasions in the last 12 months. Shit happens, life […]