The idea of success might lure you into the game of pursuing happiness, but what pushes you to the finish line is failure. Success is a long road and until you’ve reached it you’re only indicator of progress is the number of times you failed and how much that changed you. The more you fail the closer you get. If you never stop training you’ll eventually become a master of it.
Look at it this way, if you know that you have failed then you must also know that you also finished something. Yes it may not be what you planned, but it is a closure. In fact when you’ll look back later you might find it as a milestone that changed everything.
“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” - Steve Jobs
The real result of failure is not the grade of the task but the difference between who you were when you started and who you have become after you finished. The only way to fail is when you do something that does not change you in return.
When you start appreciating those subtle changes after every try, you’ll soon see your progress is not linear anymore but exponential. Appreciation makes all that difference. Why? Because once you realize that you are actually progressing you also realize that you never failed in the first place. Progress is the predecessor of success. From that point it’s just a matter of time until you get to the top of the hill. Knowing this, is a power that cannot be bought.
The magical reason for the exponential growth is a hidden virtue developing in you as you go along on your quest which is called passion. Yes passion is something you have to develop. It cannot be inherited or learned from others.
When you let passion find it’s way into your work, you won’t think and worry about failure anymore. Why? Because passion is love and true love is selfish which does not compromise. When love is in charge it leaves no space for fear and regrets. There is a reason why people say love is blind.
That blindness is the focus you need to shift your mindset from mediocre to excellence. That shift will give you the power to allow your passion to grow into a flow where your existence is temporarily suspended. When you let your mind step aside you'll find yourself battling your way through hell.
The more times you’ve been through hell the more you’ll appreciate yourself and so will people who follow your journey. At some point all the things you considered failures will be the hallmarks of your identity. After all, diamonds are made under pressure.
"Man's fate is according to his pains."
— Hesperides AD 752
“He that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains, without pains...“
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth AD 1758
"Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 13:12