Failure is Fears best friend...

I decided to ask the cards today to provide me with a subject for writing about and Failure is what I drew...

This is an incredible card, message, and reminder for me and I'm willing to bet it is for you as well.  Failure is a powerful aspect of our existence, Failure, or the Fear of Failure can be what can ultimately control a persons decision making process so fully and completely that just the thought of failure in any pursuit can be enough to stop most people in their tracks.  I know I've been there.  Shit, I've been there more times than I'd like to acknowledge but even in writing that I realize it is super important to actually acknowledge I've done this many times, reflect on some of these situations in depth and earnestly appreciate what would have happened if instead of not doing something out of the simple fear of failure what may have occurred?  What levels of greatness have I denied myself by not even trying?

I'm a very capable being, when I put my intention and attention towards something and believe I can do it I have accomplished feats most people never would have thought possible.  It's likely you can think back to at least a few of these types of experiences in your own life and realize, "damn, I did that even when I wasn't even sure I could do it!"  Failure, just thought of it is able to incapacitate oneself, to figuratively and often quite literally paralyze us to a point of actually being frozen in place.  The thought of failure can bring forward such a potent dose of fear that life can look like an impossible, nasty, and unfair reality.  What is incredible about this is that all of these are indeed just thoughts.  Our very own thoughts at that.  It's okay, I've been there, I'm pretty certain more or less all of us have been there before.  It takes great courage and a strong sense of self worth to go ahead and do whatever it is you believe in regardless if you think failure is an option or not.  The truth of the matter is that failure is ALWAYS an option.  It is virtually essential for success in most forms.  In order to achieve pretty much anything we need to accept that there's a fair chance we may fail.

If a life is lead with Failure at the forefront then a failed life will likely be lived.  If a life is lead with Failure acknowledged and yet Success is still maintained and believed in then this life will be one richly lived, with adventures galore, for life really is a process of falling and getting back up.  It is through failure that we find success, we deserve to believe we are capable of anything.  We are potent manifesting beings, we manifest success and we manifest failure too.  Personally speaking (or writing I suppose), as I embrace the magnitude of this realization it dawns on me that my ability to manifest pre-conceived failures is utterly saddening to accept, that is to say, I am presently embracing that I have many times before successfully manifested failure by never giving success a chance.  And by golly, success deserves better than that and so do I.

Failure, the word itself just sounds gross or ugly.  I am a failure, you are a failure, we are a failure, this is a failure... Yuck.  Failure is a perception and quite honestly as I write more about it I'm thinking it to be a mighty dangerous false perception.  Can we ever really fail?  Is failure really ever an actual option?  Sure, we try something and it doesn't work.  We set out to accomplish a goal and do not complete it.  We enter a competition and lose.  We live in each moment doing the best we know how to, or trying to do the best we know how to while the world around us seems to be continuously providing obstacles, challenges, disasters, drama, pain, suffering, hatred, violence, etc and what does all that mean?  Are we really failing at any specific point?  Is failure measurable with any scientific instrument?  Can it be weighed on a scale?  Seen on a graph?  As I write these words I imagine all these places on the Internet and in office buildings, and in homes and wherever else these things might be and it makes me smile, granted it is a cynical smile, mainly because just imagining a place where anyone would be focusing on failure is just a silly thing to imagine.  Not silly funny, and I guess even as those words came out I realize there could be some benefit in having some form of reflection to see where failure occurred, if only to be able to face a similar situation in a future scenario and change your actions in order to transform that failure into a success.  But I digress, I mean really, truly, can we ever really fail?

This is what Merriam-Webster has to say about it...

Fail-ure:
1~ a) omission of occurrence or performance; specifically : a failing to perform a duty or expected action <failure to pay the rent on time> b) (1) : a state of inability to perform a normal functionfailure
> — compare heart failure (2) : an abrupt cessation of normal functioning failure> c) a fracturing or giving way under stress failure>2 ~ a) lack of success b) a failing in business c) a falling short
3 ~ one that has failed

So, yes, we can fail in oh so many ways but my goodness would it be great to not look at life in this way of success and failure.  Alas, that is what we do presently.  Who knows?  Maybe one day the standards with which we base our assessment of our lives will not have these two aspects included.  If anything it would make it less easy to judge people right?...

Back to roughly where I started with this subject though, Failure, specifically the fear of it is arguably one of the most powerful incapacitating thoughts we on an individual basis can have that allows us to not even try doing something, anything really, even though chances are if we are willing to face this often overwhelming fear of failure and persevere through it into the realm of action we find success is really more obtainable than we ever imagined.

We owe it to ourselves to face our fear of failure, it is something we deserve, every single one of us.  May I and We encourage each other to embrace our fears and face them with a sense of self worth and confidence that enables us to attempt all the great things we desire to achieve in this life.  If we are able to do this we can transform this reality into the heaven it is just yearning to be.  I have seen this in others and I have seen this in myself, both sides of the spectrum on the subject too.  If in every moment and I can check my level of fearing failure and still find the strength and belief in myself to do what I am most passionate about than you can too.  Let's go live our lives in an awesome and intentional way where we give that fear of whatever failure we're looking at a good thorough acknowledgement and accept that if we are indeed able to boldly and confidently walk through this fear we can achieve anything and everything.  We are that capable.  I believe this.

I see you Failure and sure, your always and option, but I'll be damned if I let that fear of seeing you on the other side of my dreams stop me from trying to actualize them...

~Mahalo yo!