If you’re like me, the old adage “if at first you don’t succeed try, try again” was said to you over and over again while you were growing up.

It has a nice, optimistic tone. If you try enough times, you will eventually achieve what you are aiming for.

The thing is, as you grow up the stakes get higher, especially as you challenge yourself in your pursuits.

You’re no longer trying to count to 100 or tie your shoes for the first time. You’re trying to maintain a home, job, and relationships.

It’s like a million plates are spinning in the air, and if you, or situations you are in, force you to drop one, it’s not you running around with a shoe untied, it’s your massive responsibilities that come crashing down around you.

These events are often so pleasantly described as “big fat failures”.

What really got me thinking of failure was a recent trip to the Napa Valley Museum to see an exhibit on one of my personal heroes, Julia Child.

Though it’s difficult to read, her quote below says: “The only real stumbling blog is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

Well, I’m pretty sure this applies to so much in life, not just cooking.

Fear of failure keeps us stuck. Instead of remembering the old adage repeated to us that yes, we can try again, we’d rather not because then we don’t risk the pain of failure.

And as I mentioned before, failure as an adult can have massive negative impacts in our lives.

But I think really the word “failure” is the problem. It sounds like the SPLAT of a Loony Toons character that was hit with a massive boulder  (and sometimes, it literally feels that way).

But there are two directions we can take failure. We can call it:

1). Struggle

2.) Growth

Which do you choose to live in? 

Maybe instead of seeing failure as the big, bad wolf, we look at it as a metric for success. As one of my favorite inspirational speakers, Tonya Leigh says “If you’re not failing, you’re not going after your dreams.” 

That’s why I love Julia’s attitude towards boo-boos:

I suppose, like yoga, our response to failure is a practice. I can practice calling it struggle or practice calling it growth. I can practice laughing with it or practice curling up in the fetal position on my couch.

Though many days, that nasty “s” word is on the tip of my tongue, I’m going to focus on growth…and laughter.

The post 2 Ways to Deal with Failure (Monday Musings: March 12, 2018) appeared first on Chow Bella Paleo.