First Step to Learning from YOUR Failings

The first step towards learning from a failing is to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. This sounds like the most logical thing to do when you have failed, simply acknowledge and take responsibility, but the reverse in the case in society. Have you met a student who passed an examination with flying colours? He typically will say of his result when he is asked that, “I scored 5 As and 3 Bs!” more often than not he will speak with a zest that tells you he is proud of his accomplishment. In the same vein ask a student who performed woefully in the same examination and you will hear something like, “They gave me 3 Ds and 4 Fs.” I want you to note the choice and usage of words here. The student who did well takes responsibility for his performance but the other who failed deflects responsibility and attaches it to the examination body. They failed him! This is a simplistic example but goes to buttress the point.

What is your attitude towards your failings? Do you quickly acknowledge that you have failed and take responsibility for it or do you deflect it to just about anybody who you can deflect it to? If you search for such escape routes you will find many – your spouse, children, religion, school, economy, environment, the weather, or even God. The problem with taking these escape routes is that they ensure you do not leave your condition. You will continue to remain in the rot because if it isn’t your fault that you failed then you will wait for the person or circumstance whose fault it is to correct itself or the condition for you.

If on the other hand you are set on a progressive course in life, you will acknowledge that YOU failed and take full responsibility for YOUR failing. Do not underestimate the importance of taking responsibility when it comes to your failings. As in all cases of taking responsibility, you suddenly feel empowered to succeed when next you do the same venture. Taking responsibility gives you the following advantages:

·        Shows you and people around you that you and you alone is in control of your life.

·        Impresses upon people that you are a responsible person.

·        Increases public opinion of you.

·        Enhances your personal sense of self worth.

·        Reduces fear of failing in the same and other ventures.

·        Makes you confident of the fact that you aren’t a passive failure

·        Increases your confidence of trying the same thing again and even trying other things.

·        Increases your chances of success in life.

Never be afraid of taking responsibility for your failings. Imagine losing these benefits simply because you aren’t able to acknowledge a failing and accept responsibility for it. 

The Predictable God

While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. ­– God  

 There are some things I can guess about your day without you giving me a hint. First, you woke up this morning. You got ready for work. The sun gradually rose in the horizon and by noon it was right overhead. Four hours later, as you prepared to leave for home, the sun had moved to the west and seemed to be cooling off.

Now you may go, “Is this a joke? What is so ingenious about stating the obvious way a day will go?” and to that I say, “Of course there is nothing ingenious about it.” In fact the only reason I can (as every other person can) predict the trend of a day is because of the predictability of God. God set nature in a way that you can observe and correctly predict. Imagine, for a moment, if your alarm woke you up by 6 am and by 11 am the sun isn't up. Imagine if seasons were completely unpredictable and you wake up each morning to a different weather. Chaotic! I hear your heart say and in addition to that I say that the world can’t work that way.

As it is with our predictable God so it should be with our lives. If things would work in your life, and if you would make steady progress in your success journey, you need some degree of predictability in your daily activities. You should be able to operate with a pattern of vision, goal setting, planning, to-do lists, and prioritization. “Just maintain the proper order in all things,” was an advice Paul, the apostle, once gave.

It is interesting to note that progress is always the signature of orderliness. A simple glance at societies that take order and patterns seriously shows this and a glance at societies that give room for chaos provides ample evidence of stagnancy.

Immobile Progress

“I am a slow walker but I never walk back.” – Abraham Lincoln (US President)

It is possible for me to sometimes get obsessed with making progress. It may come from a sincere desire to make life better for me and my family members or it may come from a competitive disposition when I compare myself with others. Irrespective of what motivates me, what I really want is to make progress.

Progress is sweet. It is good to see that the steps I am taking toward my goals are bringing fruits. Unfortunately there are times when it seems as if my progress has stopped. It suddenly seems that I have hit a brick wall in my success journey. It is true – but rather simplistic – for me to console myself with: “It is all part of the success journey,” until I realized a liberating concept that I am about to share with you.

I believe that the two most important parameters to anyone’s success is whether the person is on the right path and whether the person is taking the right steps at the right time. For as long as these two are satisfied, success is assured irrespective of mobility. By this I mean that the fact that you are not moving is not a prove that you are not making progress.

If, for example, you are in journey to a place and you are suddenly stalled to a spot for two hours by a traffic jam. You get annoyed and curse the cause of the impasse but you do not conclude that you have failed in your journey. You don’t do this because you know that you are on the right path and in a matter of time you will get to your destination. Also, you realize that every minute that passes by you edge closer to moving forward than you were a minute before. This means you have made progress (with respect to time) even though you have not left the spot.

This concept is the same with your success journey. You may find yourself deadlocked and immobile but for as long as you know you are on the right path, your success is simply a matter of time. Also, even though you may be in the same situation you were months earlier, you know that as long as time has passed you are not on the same spot.
                          {For Articles on Progress Click Here}

If you understand this you will cut yourself some slack because you are simply making immobile progress. 

Are You Making Progress in a Rat Race?

“You are the part of rat race because you are letting them treat you like a rat. This is the modern definition of a slave.” – Saurabh Sharma (Author)

Have you been in a situation where you get tired every other day and yet wonder if the energy you exert daily is worth the effort? Does it seem to you sometimes that you are taking two steps forward and three backward? Wake up! You may be in a rat race.

I remember once watching a film that had a scene in a science laboratory. It had in it a rat that continually ran earnestly in a spinning circle. It was obvious that the rat was exerting a lot of energy and was “thinking” that by running fast enough it was making progress in getting away from his captors. Little did it know that it was caught up in a vicious cycle.

Many of us are like that rat (no insult intended). We are caught up in a race and we have been exerting all our energies, creative abilities, finances, and intent in winning. Little do we know that the fact that we are running does not mean we are progressing.

A rat race is put upon us by a system. In this system things have a pattern in which they must operate. We are simply a part of this pattern and nothing more. We are expected to do the same things over and over until “expertise” is attained. At this point we are either promoted or paid higher for our “contributions”. Little do we know that the promotion or pay increase is not different from a bigger spinning circle given to a laboratory rat.

To make progress you must be on your own unique path. You must be pursuing a predetermined goal and taking premeditated actions toward it. Progress is intentional. It does not come on you but you work and walk toward it.

Rat races cut across education, occupation and career, religion, and relationships. I have been in them, in fact, I still know some that I am in at the moment. But I do not desire to remain in them. I often evaluate my actions and ask myself in every aspect of my life if I am caught up in a rat race. What I want to see is progress in every area – all cylinders firing.

I suggest you ask yourself if you are in a rat race or a progress race. 

Work IS Progress

On the seventh day God finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. – 1st Book of Moses

 “All work and no play,” it is said, “makes Jack a dull boy.” True. Have you ever wondered what all play and no work makes Jack?

Work is a universal part of human life. Skin color may vary, cultures may be different, and tongues may be diverse but everywhere you turn on the face of the globe people work. It is a good thing to work. Paul, the fiery apostle once opined: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat”! He was of the old school that taught there is no food for lazy man.

Beyond food, there are some very important things to note about work. First, we were all created to work. We read that, “God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and take care of it.” The very first assignment man had was work-hinged.

Second, work brings us into productive living. You cannot live productively without working. Paul encouraged us in his letter to the Ephesians, “If anyone is stealing he must stop it and begin using those hands of his for honest work so that he can give to others in need.”

Third, work teaches us self-discipline. Remember that whatever (it doesn't matter what it is) your hands find to do, do it with all of your might. It takes self-discipline to exert such a level of effort to a work.

Forth, your work is healthy for your body and mind. Waddell G., Aylward M., and Burton K. in Work and common health problems, note: “It is known that unemployed people and their families suffer a higher rate of premature death, increased rates of depression and anxiety, higher rates of self-reported ill health, heart disease and risk factors of heart disease.”

                          [also read: How to Love What You Do]

       Finally, if you work you will appreciate other peoples work. You would learn to see the efforts of others and have respect for it. It is easy to look down on another person’s efforts if you are idle but when you work your outlook will be different.