Fail More

Failing is how you learn to become successful. Don’t believe me? Watch a child learning to crawl, then walk, and finally run. Ever ride a bike? No one does it without falling off a few times. It’s how we learn. We decide to do something, we test our ability, we usually fail, we analyze what happened, we make adjustments, we try again. Maybe fail again. It’s a continual process of learning.

Failure is the road to success. We should not treat it as though it was not acceptable, that it was wrong, that we were inadequate. Failure is just a word, just as success is a word. It’s like wading through a stream to get to the other side. It’s necessary. Thomas Edison found 10,000 ways that would not work until he found the one way that would. We would be deprived of his genius, and his inventions, had he given up. 

Life should be progress, not arrival, and certainly not resting on your laurels. There are ups and downs, twists and turns, starts and stumbles and tap dancing. All of it is good. Get up one more time than you fall down. Fail more.

That’s Aging Intelligently