Failure

Failure is just an idea ingrained into the brain at a young age. There are two ways to look at failure; it can be a setback or it can be a stepping stone to greatness. The way that we usually think is that failure is a bad thing and also that it is not constructive. In addition, most of the world sees failure as a form of losing. On the other hand, there are a percentage of people that go against the grain and see failure as the first wrung on the latter to success. Most of the people that are thinking that way are the same people that are creating their own path or are successful. Critically thinking about the success and the failures that have passed are ways that can be used to see how focusing on failure is affecting the way that we live.
Failure is the main reason that our society is where it is. All the technology that is available to us now you could thank to failure. Take the Wright brothers for example, the first few prototypes that they built were not working planes and that didn’t stop them from succeeding and getting that first flight down. ( nasm.si.edu) They knew that the only way to improve is by learning from your mistakes and evolving your ideas from what you learn. Then you will be able to see how your improvement has helped. Think about when you were younger and you touched the hot stove top. Your finger turned red and blistered up right? Then you went on to complain how much it was hurting. Now think, did you ever touch it purposefully again? No, is what most would say that they learned that the hot stove was not for touching. That is showing that the failure that you just experienced was turned into a positive thought by now knowing that you will get hurt if you touch that hot stove. In addition to learning that the stove was hot and could harm you, you also found out how to improve yourself so it didn’t happen anymore. Many people would say that the way that they live is by trying out things to the best of their ability and then it they were to fail they learn what they did wrong. Next they would study, practice, or re-enact the scenario that they were in. Finally, they would start what ever they wanted to do over again. Failure does not have to be a bad thing as people see it. Its kind of like the saying “the glass is half empty or half full?” Why would you want a glass that is half full?
Pessimistic or optimistic views are the types of thoughts that are used when analyzing failure. You could see it as ideas that will help you, but on the other hand it could be seen as bad thing also. There is so many ways that the thoughts of failure can be turned into success. As a matter of fact, I am currently dealing with the setbacks. I have a problem with my car as we speak. What is troubling me is starting the car. There was a day that it started in the morning and when I was getting ready to out for lunch it would not start. I did not let that stop me from going to lunch; I just pop started it and was on my way. That was a failure that I overcame and now I still am trying to find out what is causing the car not to start. Initially I thought it was a problem with the starter, so I took it out and had it checked. Then, I had found out that that was not it, so I didn’t let that stop me form reaching my goal of getting my car to start. I thought of it as just a bump in the road. Now that I was over that bump, I have encountered more and all those little setbacks have let me narrow down the options so that I could reach my goal. I have not let all the little failures put me down. Failure is a stepping stone to success or it could be a slide down to depression.
Taking the failure in a bad way also is a common practice. There are numerous people that I have seen and that I know that take failure the wrong way. As a result of them seeing failure, they usually fell bad about what ever had happened. Initially that first failure sets one back only a little bit. Then as more things begin to happen the doubt that you will succeed gets larger and more pronounced. It’s kind of like a bad rash, the more that you scratch it the worse that it ends up being. Along with the looming failure over you, you also have the people that doubt you because you don’t believe that you will reach you goal. The end result is failure all around. Take for example, one of my good friends, he has trouble with failure. If he is performing a task and does not get it right he ends up getting really mad. That is not getting him anywhere. I have told him before that he needs to use that little set back as a way to improve himself. There has been time that he has improved but he is not seeing that he does it. One time we were riding our bikes at the skate park in Winsor, keep in mind it had been a while since the last time that we had rode, and there were these really young kids there. They were easily three or four years younger than us and they were all better than us. He said that he didn’t want to ride anymore. I told him not to let that stop him from having fun. We ended up staying there only for about only fifteen more minutes and then we left. That to me was a big failure, first of all we drove out there and just stayed for about half an hour, that was pretty much a waste of gas. Initially we were going to stay there for a few hours and have some fun, but because Jeff could not handle failing we left earlier and were in a bad mood. Most of the times it seems like the more you fail, the more that you don’t want to keep going or doing whatever it is that you are trying. Focusing on the negativity only brings more unwanted outcomes. There for if you keep thinking that you will not succeed you most likely won’t. Take my truck for instance; it broke down on me a along time ago. It left me stranded out in the middle of nowhere. I was mad to say the least. I ended up having to brow a truck and trailer form someone and towing it home. It sat outside my house for about two weeks broken till I had gotten the parts to fix it. The day came that I had all the parts together to put it back in one piece, so I did. Finally when I went to fire it up, something else messed up and it would not start. This time the flywheel ring gear was ground down and the starter would not catch it and turn the engine over. I was done with it and just left it broken in the front of my house. It has been sitting there for months now rusting, decaying, and with a flat tire. Since I failed to get it started so many times it just got me frustrated and angry and because of that it is how it is. Something like that is what shows that failure can turn into a negative ending. It is the single thing that keeps us from doing a lot of things.
The human race as a hole focuses on negativity as a whole. Weather it is as big as a thing like war, or as me not being able to fix something. Failure can lead to not completing a task or letting yourself or others down. As the times get easier I think that people are more prone to letting failure put them down. Back when times were a little harder I believe that people did not let there failure stop them because of the fact that there was not as much help. Now I think that some people just let the setbacks stop them. Lets say that if someone loses there job, they could just say that unemployment will give them money. Thing like that are what makes it easier to accept failure. On the other hand, there are the people that use their roadblocks and set backs as a way to improve on whatever it is that is keeping them back. That is when you find out that failures are a thing that can be used as the beginning of the road to success. So now that my views are clear, I hope that failure will not let you define the person that you are or want to become.