Failure Is An Option

In order to succeed you must take risk, you must operate well out of your comfort zone. Risk implies that there is a chance of success or failure. I maintain that most of what holds coaches and athletes back from achieving ultimate success is not fear of failure, but fear of success. If they succeed then they must do it again and probably be expected to do it better. This brings pressure, most of which is self-imposed. That being said to be highly successful failure must be an option. Learning from failures opens up the path to success. Failure is a learning opportunity, it is all what you do with it and how you handle it. Let it define you and defeat you yes then you have failed, build upon it define yourself and rise above it then you are a success. I will close with the words of Johnny Cash, one of my favorite musicians, a man who certainly had his share of public and private failures and rose above them: “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

By the way today is the anniversary of his Folsom Prison Blues concert, read about it on Garrison Keillors Writers Almanacwritersalmanac.publicradio.org