Ugh! It’s a Big, Fat Failure!

It’s the moment when you realize you have put everything into it and no matter how hard you try it is going to fail, has failed or continues to bomb. Ugh! The overwhelming sense or defeat, disillusionment spiced with a hint of anger. All that time, all that effort, and all that disappointment. Ugh! Emotions well up inside and before you know it your body is shaking, tears begin to fall and your entire body is covered in the aftermath of failure.

I’ve had many of these moments, and I usually combine eating ice cream with some well known sappy movie to give myself comfort and more reasons for tears. I cry, and cry and cry until my nose is raw and I have no more water to shed. I allow myself time to mourn whatever it is. I then take a deep breath through the last few tears and breath deeply one last time to get it all out, then I know I must move on. Be it work or play, family or friends, I do something – anything – to move forward. It may be clearing, cleaning, creativity or just getting up and going to work. I do what it takes the next day and the next to keep moving.

The failure is hard enough, and yet the aftermath knowing that all the work and hopes will not be coming true, THAT is when it hits. Suddenly the world that was hoped to be will not be so it’s time to face a new reality. And as this quote reminds us, we must do that without losing heart. This failure does not mean we will always fail and we need not give it the power to prevent us from trying again. This failure is just one in a lifetime of trying, where the majority of our efforts will lead to success. Hope is still there for our future efforts, we must think and believe that this is true and have the courage to do all that work again.

Once time has passed and we are moving forward, that is the time to take stock of what happened and learn the lessons. Every failure – every single one – provides golden nuggets of wisdom and truth to help us get better, stronger, faster and smarter. What lesson needs to be learned so this doesn’t happen again OR we can prevent it from happening to others? Our greatest gift is not always being a success, our most fabulous moments in life are the ones where we get back up and keep going. We grow, we learn, we survive and we keep moving forward. Anyone who has done anything of value knows that lesson and learned it from a big, fat failure.