If you tend to focus on the extreme of success and failure and to fixate on particular events in your life, try to put things into perspective.  When you do, you'll be able to share the philosophy of someone such as the apostle Paul, who was able to say, "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content."  And that was saying a lot, considering that Paul had been ship-wrecked, whipped, beaten, stoned and imprisoned.  Throughout everything, his faith enabled him to maintain perspective.  He realized that as long as he was doing what he was supposed to do, his being labeled success or failure by others really didn't matter.

Every person's life is filled with errors and negative experiences.  But know this:

Errors become mistakes 
when we perceive them and respond to them incorrectly.

Mistakes become failures
when we continually respond to them incorrectly.

People who fail forward are able to see errors or negative experiences as a regular part of life, learn from them and them move on.  They preserve in order to achieve their purpose in life.

Washington Irving once commented, "Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.  Little minds are subdued by misfortunes, but great minds rise above them."

The terrible truth is that all roads to achievement lead through the land of failure.  It has stood firmly between every human being who had a dream and the realization of that dream.  The good news is that anyone can make it through failure.  That's why author Rob Parsons maintained that "tomorrow belongs to the failures."

Too many people believe that the process is supposed to be easy.  The prolific American inventor Thomas Edison observed that attitude among people.  And this is how he responded to it:

Failure is really a matter of conceit.  People don't work hard because in their conceit, they imagine they'll succeed without ever making an effort.  Most people believe that they'll wake up some day and find themselves rich.  Actually, they've got it half right, because eventually they do wake up.

Each of us has to make a choice.  Are we going to sleep life away, avoiding failure at all costs?  Or are we going to wake up and realize this : Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success.  If we learn to embrace that new definition of failure, then we are free to start moving ahead and failing forward.

Contributed by:
Failing Forward : Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success : John C. Maxwell

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