Don't be afraid to fail.

Maybe you haven’t achieved the success at work, diet and exercise, or in your relationships, that you’d like. If that’s the case, then you need to try something new. The challenge is that trying new, unfamiliar things, carries with it the possibility of failure. No one LIKES to fail. Everyone WANTS to succeed.
Failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Failing doesn’t make you any less intelligent. It doesn’t make you any less capable. It doesn’t make you a loser. It simply means you tried something and it didn’t work out. Move on and try something else.
History is filled with famous “failures”. It took Thomas Edison over 1,000 attempts to make a light bulb that worked. Have you ever looked at Abraham Lincoln’s list of failures?
  • 1831 - Lost his job.
  • 1832 - Defeated in his run for the Illinois state legislature.
  • 1833 - Failed in business.
  • 1835 - His sweetheart died.
  • 1836 - Had a nervous breakdown.
  • 1838 - Defeated in his run for Illinois House Speaker.
  • 1843 - Defeated in a run for Congress.
  • 1846 - Elected to Congress.
  • 1846 - Lost re-election.
  • 1849 - Rejected for the Commissioner of the General Land Office.
  • 1854 - Defeated in his run for the U.S. Senate.
  • 1856 - Defeated in his run for the Vice Presidency.
  • 1858 - Again defeated in his run for the U.S. Senate.
  • 1860 - Elected President of the United States.
Lots of failures there but I don’t think many people would say that Lincoln wasn’t a good leader.
Michael Jordan was arguably the best basketball player of all time. He scored 32,292 points in his career, was league MVP 5 times, and has 6 NBA championship rings (out of 6 visits to the NBA Finals). Yet even the great Michael Jordan missed over 9,000 shots in his career - 26 times when it would have been the game-winning shot.
Do you think Michael Jordan considers himself a “failure” for missing 9,000 shots? No! He took his shot, it didn’t go in, he moved on and tried again.
Remember that you don’t truly fail until you quit trying. What if Edison had given up at 999 tries? Lincoln would have been MORE than justified in looking back on his life and throwing in the towel. Failure is just learning what doesn’t work. To drive home that point, from now on remember, F.A.I.L. means First Attempt ILearning.
Now get out there and try! Yes, you will fail now and then, but you’ll succeed more times than not.

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