Be
Recently I committed myself to a second run at a mental toughness challenge called 75 Hard.
It is a program of disciplined activity over a 75 day period where you do 2×45 minute workouts, drink a whole gallon of water every day, take a personal progress selfie every day, stick to a diet/eating plan, and read 10 pages of a non fiction personal growth book every day for 75 days.
Sounds simple right?
It’s not.
I failed 10 days in.
The trick with this program is you have to commit to doing it and if you fail, you have to start over from the beginning no matter what day you’re on.
Right?
I can see why you failed Art! Ha.
Funny thing is, I did the whole program last summer and made it all the way through (minus 3 critical tasks) but I did do it.
Why am I telling you this?
Here’s why.
In order to get where you’re going in life, no matter how committed you are, failure is inevitable. So what do you do?
Do
There’s no cure for failure. Sometimes you fail because in a moment of weakness you give in to temptation. Sometimes it’s because you overcommitted and there’s no possible way to not fail. Sometimes it’s out of simple ignorance and you had to fail so that you can learn.
Whatever the reason for your failure, I want to give you three perspectives that will help you better handle failure when you experience it.
1. Fail Forward. John Maxwell says “Not realizing what you want is a problem of knowledge. Not pursuing what you want is a problem of motivation. Not achieving what you want is a problem of persistence.” Failure is never really failure when you get back up and keep moving ahead.
2. Fail Humbly. Many of us, when we fail, fail arrogantly. we whine and moan and treat our failure like it’s the end of the world. Fail with humility. Trust that that failure is teaching you something you need to know or be aware of. Failure can be an amazing teacher if we won’t rail so hard against it but humbly come under its tutledge..
3. Fail Faithfully. Ultimately some failures are the result of our choices, and some failures just happen. Regardless of when, why, or how, failure should point us toward a higher plane of thinking. Elevate your mind and trust with your heart. Put faith in God in the process. He has you in His hand. Have some trust that He is the author of your life and he can be trusted with all the uncertainties that come with life. And get up and keep moving forward.