You would think that highly successful people, whatever their profession or occupation, are highly successful because, well, they know how to do something and keep on doing it correctly. But that is only a partial truth. Highly successful people do things correctly, yes, but more importantly, they follow the Japanese proverb, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
You see, no one ever gets it right every time, or maybe even the first or fiftieth time. That is irrelevant. What matters is to keep going. And going and going.
As in, never let an apparent failure stop you from reaching for your goal. Or, as Jerome Kern’s wonderful song states: “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” (A song made famous by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in “Swing Time,” just in case you were wondering.) Picking yourself back up from failure matters whether it’s in cooking the best lasagna or winning Olympic gold, or finally managing to get yourself to work on time.
Which reminds us of basketball legend Michael Jordan’s perfect quote: "I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." This boils it down to a simple truth: when you view failure as a stepping stone to success, you can’t help but succeed.
The most brilliant among us at adopting the “stepping stone” approach are infants. Truly. And yes, you, since you were once one of those. Ever watched a baby learning to walk? They spend more time plunking down on their rears than they do on their feet. Which is true of animal babies as well as us humans. They don’t fret, they don’t assume they are failures as babies (human or otherwise). They just behave like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and pick themselves up and start over again. Minus the dusting off, true.
So, next time you miss an important deadline, botch a work assignment, can’t seem to master a tennis move, whatever it is, don’t plant a giant “L” on your forehead. Figure out what went wrong, not how YOU are wrong, a defective being, but simply how to do it differently, more effectively, next time, and keep going. That’s how success is built.
Do you think the Energizer Bunny hit that drum perfectly every time? No way. And yet it, and you, just need to figure out the next best way to do whatever, and keep – you got it – going and going and going!
Noelle Nelson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, speaker and author of over a dozen best-selling books. Dr. Nelson focuses on how we can all enjoy happy, fulfilling lives as we appreciate ourselves, our world and others. She is the author of “The Longevity Secret, How to Live Happy, Healthy & Vibrant Into Your 70s, 80s, 90s and Beyond” (Amazon Kindle) and "Phoenix Rising: Surviving Catastrophic Loss: Fires, Floods, Hurricanes and Tornadoes.” The theme of all her books is “You matter, you count, you are important.” Visit www.noellenelson.com.