Failure Balances Success

In this week’s article, we will discuss Balance and how Success and Failure are both needed and can be lessons in our journey.

Life is all about balance, I think that’s a concept we all can stand behind and not question. We use terms like “Too much of a good thing is bad”. “You can appreciate life because of the thought of death.” 50 Cent coined the term “Death gotta be easy cause life is hard”. How about day balancing night, and the sky balancing the ground, or spiritually; evil and good, angels and demons? Balance is everywhere around us. How can we appreciate being wealthy if we’ve never been broke? Balance helps to provide us with perspective and keep us on track and in lockstep.

Now that we understand somewhat of how balance is around us then I want to pose a question to you… How do you balance success? A lot of times we always want success in every single thing we do. We want success in business, in our grades and school, and in our relationships, in our wellness journey, in surgeries, or in the medical field. We want success in every single bit of life and never even want to think or hear about the balance of success. What about the term “Good vibes only”? Have you ever heard someone say that? They don’t want the balance of good vibes. What about the old show Press Your Luck they used to use the term “Big bucks no whammies”. Success is the only thing we hope wish and pray for and we completely forget about the balance of success as if it is not helpful. We don’t even want to talk about it or we are being “Negative”.

Let’s say the quiet part out loud today. The balance of success is Failure, and it’s an absolute must as we go through life. Failure can benefit us in multiple ways such as teaching us to be more resilient, building character, enhancing problem-solving skills, fostering innovation, and promoting growth. A lot of things that we have and enjoy today in our modern life are built on the backs of those who have failed time and time again before us… I saw a post on Instagram not too long ago and it hit me hard…

If you take a close look at the photo you will recognize both the beginner and the master have the exact same beginning, the main difference is the master never stopped and the beginner gave up. The master continued to fail week after week but he improved constantly. The moral of this story is that success is not the benchmark we should be shooting for. We need to focus on just showing up and putting in the work and effort. If you do that and you keep at it, over time you will get better and better and better and eventually you will surpass everyone around you that was moving in the same direction. When everyone else has stopped and quit eventually they will be asking you for advice and how you did it. The difference between my wellness journey and those who graciously listen to my words is simply have failed more than you. It’s not that I’ve had more success, I promise if you place my last 7 years against most others I have failed wayyyy more than others to get to where I am. I can be proud of this because it has taught me many lessons and qualifies me to share those lessons with you today.

We have to move away from the thought process that success is the end goal. Success to any project or goal that we set is now the new foundation. It is the bottom floor of the new level. When you hit that new floor the focus should be to fail forward and continue until you hit the next new bottom floor. Like an elevator, you will go up and down between these floors through the process but as long as you continue with courage and a willingness to not be perfect you will always attain the goals and desires of your heart. One setback is not the end or fatal. One failure is not the end or completion. As always perfection is not needed but consistency is a must.