Superpower of Persistence

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION – Or is it?

Why are we so afraid of failure? Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to not accept failure? Why is failure perceived as a bad outcome?

Now you are probably saying right about now, ‘Failure prevents me from getting what I want out of life, it makes me feel worthless, hopeless and moves me further away from achieving the things I want to achieve’.

Remember the guy who invented the light bulb, Thomas Edison, well he once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

This brings me to your Superpower of Persistence, the resilience to keep pushing on until you do succeed.

When a child first learns to walk, they fall down many times, do they give up? NO they persevere, WHY? Because the child that has taken those first steps is always encouraged and supported by those around them. They want to succeed so badly, that each failure is a step towards eventual success. Each failure is a lesson on how to change the way they do things, and they persevere regardless of how many times they fall down.

I often wonder when as human beings, did we first decide that failing is bad? Why in schools are we punished for failing? Isn’t failure also step in succeeding?

FAIL = First Attempt In Learning

What if we had to continually fail to get it right? We do this each time we learn a new skill, we fail throughout the process. When learning to ride a bike, how many times did you fall off before you got the perfect combination of skills to ride off into the sunset? Or when you first learnt to play a musical instrument? Failure is a part of learning journey; it is part of the process. If you have a dream or ambition for your future, at some point, failure is inevitable throughout the journey. But how we perceive or manage that failure is the biggest challenge to our success.

The picture that we paint in our minds about our failures, determines how we perceive that failure. When Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times while trying to invent the light bulb, he never gave up until he had success. He reframed the meaning of his failures to be something greater to him, his failures inspired him to continue and to persevere until he succeeded. For Thomas Edison, through his Superpower of Persistence, he turned his failures to success, and you can do exactly that same thing in your life.

Through my life journey, I have also had many failures, but from each failure I have learnt something. I agree that it is disheartening and sometimes downright disappointing when you feel you have worked so hard to fail, but it takes a stronger person to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and have another go. Each failure I have experienced has brought with it critical learnings, that I have chosen to use as a positive learning outcome. I used my failures to determine why I failed, and how I can do things differently in my next attempt. I used my Superpower of Persistence to push through and achieve my goals and you can too.

Your SUPERPOWER of Persistence is a unique superpower but only if you choose to use it!