So he promised to make some changes: develop healthier habits, say no to unhealthy habits. You put some plans in motion. You get going, driven by momentum and positive feelings; perhaps you are beginning to see some of the results of your work. Then after a while, before you know it, it’s over. YOU FAILED – hooray!
Here are some quotes I’ve put together on “failure” – there’s a lot of wisdom here!
You can have a new beginning at any time you choose, because this thing we call ‘failure’ is not falling, but staying down.
Mary Pickford (1893 – 1979)
You always pass failure on the way to success.
Mickey Rooney (1920 – )
As painful as it may be (“Don’t touch the stove. It’s hot!”), failure is incredibly quick as a teaching aid. In fact, life could be described as a learning environment rich in failure.
Whitworth, Kimsey House and Sandahl
These authors, of “Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People to Success in Work and Life,” also point out the all-important difference between failing at something (which, let’s face it, we do) and being a failure. (which, let’s face it, we’re not!).
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even if they are checked by failure, than to align yourself with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919)
Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A Edison (1847 – 1931)
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)
The success of a minute pays for the failure of years.
Robert Browning (1812 – 1889)
Don’t be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the path to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly what is true, and each new experience points to some form of error which we then carefully avoid.
John Keats (1795 – 1821)
Don’t be so afraid of failure that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, could have, and should have.
Louis E. Boone
Do you want me to give you a formula for success? It’s pretty simple, really. Double your failure rate. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it’s not like everything. You can get discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Do all you can. Because remember that this is where you will find success.
Thomas J. Watson
It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; much more often they succeed through failure. Precept, study, counsel, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has.
Samuel smiles
And finally:
Don’t lose confidence if you slip, be thankful for a pleasant ride. And get up, dust yourself off and start all over again.
Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields
You can go one of two ways after a failure: “WOE ME!” or “NOW WHAT?” As my coaching clients would tell you, questions are where the gold is always found. And, as a bonus, it’s also where you always find the answers.
If you’ve had a setback, slip, or failure with your self-care plan, congratulations! It means you tried something! It also means that you have learned some important lessons.
(c) Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.