Reaching our potentially by consistently failing

How will we ever know what our limit is until we hit it?

Sometimes you have to fall down to get back up and reach a higher point. Many times you have to fail before you get to success.

If we consistently fail, learn, try again, fail less, learn more, try again, master one subject, try something related but new, fail, learn, and keep repeating the process, we can’t help but to maximize our potential. We will likely never truly maximize what we’re capable of doing, but I think it’s a worthy endeavor to try our best.

Failing as a way to move forward

Failing is learning. Do you think a professional golfer has never lost a golf ball, a basketball player hasn’t missed a shot, or a baseball player didn’t strike out to end the game? You will never be 100% successful in everything you try. Embrace failures. If you only attempt to do things you already know you can do, your improvement will be limited. It’s ok to fail! The key is to learn from those failures – to bounce back and try again! True winners don’t let failures keep them down.

The dream killer

Comfort is the killer of dreams.

Most of the things we greatly desire, yet still do not have, are difficult to obtain. With that, you get to make the choice. Do you want to consistently face the difficult? Or would you rather be comfortable and not get what you desire most?

Do you want to look like a fitness model and have big legs, defined arms, and six pack abs? You’ll have to hit the gym with purpose everyday and clean up your diet. You’ll need to stop going out for drinks and eating dessert.

Do you want financial freedom? Then you’ll have to spend your money on assets and live below your means. You’ll need to increase your income and decrease your expenses.

Do you want to become more knowledgeable? You’ll have to reduce your hours in front of the tv and start reading more, networking with people who are already doing what you want to do, and start taking action. Things won’t go according to how you read about them in books and you’ll have to be ok with problem solving and failing from time to time.

If you want “the best,” you usually have to pay for it in some way (sacrificing focused time, energy, money, etc). If you want to live out your dreams, you’ll have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Because only seeking comfort is a recipe for dream killing.

Making an honest attempt

If I try, I have a chance. If I don’t try, I have no chance. There is no harm in trying and failing. At least you’re still setting yourself up to possibly succeed. But if you don’t try for fear of failing, you guarantee that you will not achieve your goal.

Be ok with taking chances and always strive to do your best. You should give your greatest effort in everything you do. If you are taking the time to do something, you might as well do it properly. Not only that, but how you do anything is how you do everything. Don’t fall into the habit of going through the motions and not giving it your all, otherwise that will become your new norm.

If you take chances and give 100% of your effort, you can rest easy at night. You can go to bed knowing that you gave it your all and not have any regrets. Again, the only you can control is your effort. If things don’t work out as planned, let it be because of forces outside of your control, not because you didn’t do something.