Try, Fail; Try Again, Fail Again...

A never-ending thirst for improvement is necessary to keep pressing forward. Never being satisfied, never being content with the way things currently are. Unfortunately, I do not necessarily possess this, at present. However, as I have discussed all up until now, this is trainable. And I intend to ingrain it in myself. You see, I have a very hard time seeing things as particularly bad for myself, no matter how bad they truly are. How can I possibly be so far down on myself, when I have a beautiful wife, a beautiful son, a roof over my head, and a refrigerator and pantry stocked with food? Not worrying whether I might be shot or beheaded for my views. Not wondering where my next meal will come from. Every time I start to get down on myself, I simply remind myself how good I really have it. That said, I’m far from thriving (relatively speaking), and I don’t have everything I want. And that should piss me off and drive me. And of course, this gratuity for what I have, and this longing for more, do not need to be mutually exclusive.

It’s easy for me to blame it on others – getting sucked into bad habits that take me away from the things I need to do to accomplish my goals. That’s called discipline – doing what you need to do, when it needs to be done. I constantly find myself admiring those who have built these large businesses – say what you want about business practices, but the ability and discipline to set up something so large is quite remarkable, and something you can’t really appreciate until you’re trying to do it yourself.

You will try, and you will fail. You will start a lot, finish not as much, and you won’t like a fair amount of it. But that’s all part of the process. The time you sit by with the fear of imperfection is time wasted, that could have been spent doing and learning. I saw a great quote the other day that said something to the effect of, “an expert has failed more times than a beginner has tried.” It’s a mantra I have to keep repeating to myself, because I am that person sitting on the sidelines, fearing imperfection. I constantly am asking myself, “but what if it isn’t right?” It’s the same question that the greatest in each field had to ask themselves, and likely did, many times. But they forged ahead, and found out that being wrong isn’t the final bell. Success is never final, failure is never fatal. Because even if what we do is right, that doesn’t mean the end of the journey. It just means we’ve found one way, in that particular instance, that is successful. It won’t stay that way forever, and you have to keep moving ahead, keep putting yourself in a position to be wrong, keep learning, and keep getting better.