On Failure | To Fail, & Not Suffer

#JournalingJuly - July 14th

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Failure is a temporary state. Feeling like a failure consistently is a chronic failure of the mind. It’s like holding on to pain long after a wound has healed, under the conditions that would have allowed for instantaneous healing & no lingering pain — should the injured one simply have willed it so.

Part of the symptoms include feeling the need to suffer in order to learn from the failure. As if the time under self-induced suffering makes the lessons more meaningful, more impactful.

I failed to deliver on this month’s consistency challenge; on multiple occasions within the past few days. And yet, here I am, face to face with it once more. Invigorated by the time away, by other meaningful inner & outer work. (As such, I have written 2000 words on this day — July 16th, actually — to catch up. 4 separate posts with a minimum of 500 words, exactly as I set the daily goal for myself).

I failed to compose myself & be accountable to a lifestyle I deemed beneficial for my life. In more ways than one. Truly, it is as they say, success is on the other side of failure. Failure is only a temporary state.

To be a “failure” is an imagination. A genjutsu cast on oneself, or by one’s most engaged circle of influence or comunity.

We owe a false sense of duty to whom we once were. We cling onto ways of being, states of mind & habits, like artifacts to be cherished as souvenirs from the past. A crass statement, sure, as I’m sure you & I are both well aware that many of these ways of being have ultimately served our lives for the better. Perhaps all the more reason why we are so quick to protect even the ones that silently diminish our vitality.

Accepting the chronic state of disease that is self-pity, festering in the shallows of failure, is a warped aggrandizement of the power it beholds. Failure is indeed a force to ponder, just more so in reverence to the lessons & gems it contain.

Those lessons can be acquired without suffering. The gems can be uncovered without illusory pain that persists. Success resides on the other side of failure. Failure is but a stepping stone, as I’m sure you all have known. As always, easier said than done — worth doing anyway.

To fail is to have successfully discovered a way in which something cannot or should not be done. It is an excellent metric for reorienting oneself back towards the path of a truly successful operation. It is the iterative prototype before the final viable product of your efforts.

Learn from failure, but do not be stunned by it. Do not condemn yourself to the impermanent feelings & emotions that come directly after not attaining a set goal or outcome.

Transcend the need to vindicate the suffering ensued post-failure. You can & should permit yourself the right to forgive yourself for any missteps that lead you to this outcome. Be grateful for the lessons & your newfound clarity. Trust the process.

Ultimately, I wanted to illustrate how beneficial a tool failure is & how the experience of it can be exercised in a meaningful way, without the need to perpetuate suffering.

All the Best,

Sean aka Mr. Wildenfree

#LiveLifeWell

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