Written by: Kim Danon
I have often found myself striving for perfection in many areas of my life. The ironic part about perfection is it causes us to focus on our imperfections! So I ask myself, what am I learning by being perfect? How to be satisfied for a moment? To celebrate a moment that will soon pass, only to bring the pressure to duplicate my perfect performance in the future? Perfection does not sound very satisfying or peaceful and perfection never sustains itself. It is never-ending work without rest.
What if I started asking myself “What have I failed at today?” Not to dwell on failure per say, but to self-evaluate what challenged me to grow. If I never fail, am I truly learning? If I never fail, have I placed my bar too low and by doing that, waste my potential to do greater things? Fear. It all comes down to fear and maybe control…we are often judged by our successes and rarely see the benefit of failure as a pathway to achieving things we desire most but are afraid to pursue.
Going forward, I challenge you to fail at something every day! Yes! That is your new goal! Not failure due to lack of effort, but failure because you took a step into unchartered territory; a step needed in order to accomplish your dreams! Many of the things we have available to us today are the result of someone’s initial failure.
So! Go forward and fail in peace. You have the ability to fall down and get up stronger due to the lesson you learned through failure. A lesson perfection can never teach. When someday, someone asks what contributed to your success, tell them “Failure.”.