What Does Failure Signify?

It’s a Step in the Right Direction

This piece is for everybody out there who is struggling right now to do something. The next thing to do is to pass a test, ace a course, get a certificate, or earn a degree. It does not matter what the thing is you are trying to do. It just matters that you are trying to do something. Something that is important to you.

I am here to tell you that trying is the most critical aspect of whatever it is you are attempting to do.

What if you are trying to quit smoking? Well, I know personally just how addictive smoking is. I also know how hard it is to quit. I quit twice. The first time lasted three smoke-free years. The second time is this one. It’s been almost 25 years, I suppose. I’ve lost track. I do know that quitting the second time was harder than the first time. When I started smoking after being smoke-free for three years, it made me sick. I got dizzy. I had to sit down. I almost threw up. But, somehow, I knew if I took a second and third drag, it would get easier. It did. In less than three minutes, I was a smoker again.

When it was time again for me to quit that second time, it was very difficult for me. But I kept trying. In the beginning, sometimes I could only quit for 20 minutes at a time. I felt so helpless. I felt so inadequate. I felt like such a loser. But I kept trying. Trying, and lying, and quitting, and smoking, and quitting, and smoking. I’d hide my smokes out in the glove compartment of the car because going downstairs at three in the morning because I couldn’t stand it one more minute was just not done. Not done in my neighborhood, anyway. So, I woke my husband up and asked him to go downstairs to the car. He understood. He loves me. He knows what it is like to quit smoking.

So, I kept failing until I did not. I do know that I have probably saved the cost of a house by not smoking since then. Probably. I’m not all that interested in figuring it out right now. The last time I did the figuring, it was almost $83,000. That was in April 2022. It’s more now. All you have to do is figure out when you quit and what the cost of a pack of cigarettes was. Figuring in inflation for packs of cigarettes and how long it’s been that you haven’t been smoking, you have what you’ve saved. Right. About one house.

That was a lot of failure. But I made it through. Each and every one of those failures was a step in the right direction.

How about if you fail a class you are taking? Okay, so that happened. I would ask if you learned anything. You might not have learned what the curriculum wanted you to learn, what the course promised you would learn. I’m asking what you learned.

Did you know that the introductory course of any course you ever take is going to be the hardest one? That is the course that will expose you to every variation that subject is going to take. Once you get into more advanced courses, you will be learning more specific information about the subject. And courses like math the courses will build one on the other. You move through basic math, to geometry, to algebra I, to algebra II, to calculus, and on to whatever advanced forms of math there are. Same thing with economics, medicine, jewelry making, glass blowing, and with writing.

Also, there is more new vocabulary in that first course of anything you take than will be in any subsequent class. I’d never thought of introductory classes that way, but it’s true. They are hard.

How many years do you think it takes to become a farmer? Being a successful farmer means you’re also going to need to know how to run a business. You need to figure out if you are making a profit. You’ll need to know how to fix equipment that breaks down. Maybe you’ll need to learn how to solder stuff. You might need to know how to work with metal. But you say you want to be a farmer. Why should you know how to work with metal? Because shovels break. Wheelbarrows break. Blades get dull. Sure, you can hire out those jobs, but didn’t I hear you say you aren’t rich? That’s what people do when they aren’t swimming in cash. They turn to do-it-yourself ways to make the wheels and cogs turn and fit together.

It might seem like to accomplish something it’s going to look like one step after another. Actually, I think our journeys are more like a polka dance. Here, there, bounce forward, swing back, two hops.

I just wanted to give you a different perspective on failure. It’s really just another step in the right direction.

Thanks for reading. I hope this might have improved your spirits. CCFS, which is Clap, Comment, Follow and Subscribe.