Wisdom Offerings of Failure
Most of us fear failure. As a result, we make every attempt to avoid it as often as possible. When it does occur, we work extremely hard to make it invisible. This is unfortunate because failure is a natural and important part of life. New and remarkable insights, growth, and potential depend on it. We cannot claim great expertise in any field without having failure as an integral part of the learning, development, and experimentation process..
Acceptance
Every one of us has failed to some degree and in one way or another. When we fail at something important, we are giving ourselves some space to design new thoughts and images, take a new approach, work differently, and change ourselves. When failure becomes apparent we have to do something, which is better than throwing in the towel. By making peace with failure we can readjust and rebound, reimagine, and recreate. Even the most horrendous failures can be rectified and turned into sagacious wisdom - if we are willing to look at it as an unexpected offering of wisdom. Success depends on the acceptance of failure. As much as we don’t want to admit this, failure also shows us how impatiently habituated we are in achieving instant results. We want immediate success in our endeavors because we desire to live in a constant state of permanency, continuity, and security when the only thing we can really count on is change.
Self-Compassion
In truth, we succeed more often in life than we fail. It is in the simple act of accepting failure that we are able to clear away the mental and emotional clutter that hinders our ability to recognize the wisdom that arises from the ashes of failure. Last but not least, failure provides opportunities to practice self-compassion.
“There are two positive and beneficial reasons for exchanging the word failure for “practice.” First, we establish self-compassion through failure. Second, that’s all failure really is. ”