Melissa Cassera
Publicity Specialist - TV Personality - Wellness Expert Marlton, NJ
http://www.easyprsecrets.com
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"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game's winning shot...and missed. I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan
In the latest issue of Success Magazine, publisher Darren Hardy tells a story of his father teaching him that not only is it "ok to fail, it is proof you are improving." Is it possible that the more we fail, the more we succeed?
Yup.
I started thinking back to various experiences in my life where I failed...miserably. While this reflection would typically launch me into depression, instead I started jotting these failures in my journal and then writing the lessons I learned from those mishaps. Here's an example:
In my bootcamp class on 'running' day we break up into three groups - fast, faster, fastest. I always fell somewhere in the middle with the 9-minute mile crowd. One day a member from the 'fastest' crowd said to me 'run with us - you don't belong in that other group.' I agreed, hesitantly, and joined the fastest clique. About 2 miles in I felt like I was going to pass out and dropped out of the group, struggling to catch my breath on the side of the road.
Fail.
The next running day I joined the group again. This time I made it a little further, but still had to drop out from exhaustion.
I'm now 13 weeks into bootcamp and finally on Wednesday I was able to keep up with the fastest group the entire time. No dropping out. But keep in mind I failed TWELVE times over twelve weeks before that happened.
So the next time you feel down because you failed, look at that failure as a golden opportunity for improvement.
So what have you failed at lately?
Read Melissa's other blog entries >
Why Failing is the Best Thing for You
