Failure is in Our Nature
Table of Contents
Failure is in Our Nature
Many of us know the phrase “learn from our mistakes” and we understand it’s meaning to be gaining valuable insight and experience from our perceived failures or lack of success at something. In all honesty though, how many of us cope well with failure?
Many that work in the spiritual arena can be heard to say “we are spirit having a human experience” and, although we may find it difficult to accept, encountering failure is an inevitable part of our human experience. We must all learn how to deal with failing and picking ourselves up from it. Faults happens all the time and it should happen in everyday life and events. What makes us and our soul’s grow is how we react to those faults and failures. Ultimately, we have to give ourselves permission to fail.
The Fear
Failure and making mistakes is often accompanied with fear: a fear of change, a fear of trying, a fear of what other’s may think, a fear of success or a fear of something new – simply put, one of the greatest mistakes you can make in life is to be constantly fearful that you may just make one! We should never fear our failures or our mistakes but it is often the responses of others, especially those that we care about, that make us hesitant to try or to experiment with something in the first place. Perhaps we would be wise to remember that often times those who are the quickest to judge and ridicule are those that live within their own comfort zone or would prefer that you stay within yours. Those of us who fear failure are those of us who limit our endeavours and experiences. We should instead fear never trying.
As Albert Einstein once said “A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new” It is true to say that nothing creative or innovative can happen without an element of failure. However, this also applies to making changes to any aspect of our life, our living experiences: be that our relationships, our careers, our living environment and even the way we work with spirit and our mediumship.
Handle on Failure
Many of us struggle to recover from failure as we can lack the coping skills required to navigate the emotions and reactions it can generate. When we understand our failures, why it happened, how we are reacting to it and how we could best handle it, we begin a learning process that will lead to personal, and soul growth. If we integrate all of this into knowledge we will enable ourselves to be better equipped to deal with failure when we encounter it once more. Failure and not achieving our desired result will happen. It is the process of what we do during and after that is most important. It is our reaction to the lack of wanted success that will shape our experience. We have to move out of our ego and ensure our pride is out of the way in order to get to the grass roots of the learning experience. As with anything in our life, it is our attitude and reaction to our perceived failure that will define it– this way we ensure failure is only an experience not a final destination. Failure is an intelligent refinement process because it is based on experience.
Part of facing failure with courage is choosing not to allocate blame to anyone or anything. When we consider our failing as someone else’s fault or we didn’t meet our desired outcome because the equipment failed, the questions were too hard, spirit were not clear enough, etc we then hold ourselves back; from learning, from moving on and from growing from the experience. Blame will breed resentment and ultimately we have the potential of adopting a victim mentality. Blame renders us powerless. It leaves us with no where to go that can create movement away from the current situation. Blame encourages us to develop poor problem solving skills, finding little pleasure in life and poor insight. We can consider the blame game to be an attitude that will ensure we will neglect to reach our true potential. Alternatively, if we reflect on what happened and how we can potentially reshape the experience for the next time, we give ourselves an opportunity for growth and evolving. Blame keeps us small but acceptance creates room for growth.
Failure is Part of the Process
Let us endeavour to see failure as a delay in our plans and goals we have set for ourselves – not as defeat. It is only defeat if we give up and walk away. Better to think of it as a detour, an opportunity to take a look at what we are doing and potentially why we are doing it and how we are going about achieving it. Failure is an opportunity for us to reassess what is important to us. We must understand that failure is not the opposite of our desired result but simply part of the process in which we achieve it. Failure is, and always should be a refinement process. It is about trying, reflection, refinement, progress and at times repeat! It is always an opportunity to improve ourselves. Our mistakes can create a mirror in which we can take a good look at ourselves and evaluating if the failure is still in alignment with what our soul requires at the present time: therefore the incurred failure becomes an opportunity to change direction onto a more suitable pathway at this time in our life. It is good to take the opportunity which failure creates to reconsider if our original plan and goal set is still in line with our morals, values and aspirations. Perhaps the failure has shown us something that we didn’t see when we were focussed on our original desired outcome. All too often, we see failure as a negative event. With a shift of perception, it can be an opportunity for us to create a much needed change. Many of us talk often of signs and the universe delivering messages in many ways. Yet, we choose that these signs and universal messages are only the easy to digest ones, the one’s that work in our favour. Failure can be a sign too. But in these moments, we chose to forget that in spirit, the universe and in nature, there is no good and bad. Life and it’s events are not personal, they just are. We humans are the ones who make experiences, events, happenings and people personally good and bad. If we can shift ourselves to be in a place where things are just as they are and an experience for us to have, everything takes on a different perspective. It is a shift that takes conscious work and constant maintenance but we will make continual progress from one experience to another in the nature of the growth of our soul and exploring our full potential.
No Errorless Learning
It is good to remember that there is no such thing as errorless learning: these errors can be upsetting and unsettling but ultimately they are all an opportunity for growth in life and soul work. If only we would stop measuring success on what we consider the proper result! All too often we box ourselves into the confines of what works for someone else or what they consider to be the best practise of whatever we are doing. Ultimately though, working through this life, with all it’s trials and tribulations is an experience. In order for us to achieve the best potential from that experience, especially when it does not go to our planning, is to accept it for what it is, learn from it and refine it in readiness for next time. Failure has an ability to to shape ourselves in the most positive of ways. It builds resilience, strength of character, humbleness and honesty. Failure brings a refinement and evolvement process which naturally develops an appreciation of all things – if only we allow it. After all, it is in our nature.
With Love,
Helen
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