Monday, May 9, 2011

There’s a saying: men do not fail…they give up trying.  I love this, for the wisdom and ultimate truth behind it.

Often, people become their own worst enemies.  They manage to exact self-fulfilled failure, not because they aren’t capable of achieving their goals, but because they’re unwilling to follow through with them.  Identifying what needs to be changed is perhaps one of the biggest challenges to self-betterment.  After that, comes the act of actively moving forward to achieve one’s goal.  Of putting in the necessary effort required.  Of facing what might be one’s deepest darkest fears in order to move beyond them.

It’s about this point that many give up trying.  They convince themselves that things aren’t so bad as they stand.  They can live with the status quo.  It’s really not worth the effort to change or improve upon themselves. 

This makes me sad, for I don’t believe that individuals should be held back by their fears or lack of incentive to progress.  I see it all the time, folks who simply…stop trying.  Some do so because of things from their past being triggered with those triggers being too uncomfortable for them to face.  Others lack the tenacity to power through difficult challenges to reach betterment on the other side.  Still more fail to have the foresight to identify what it is that they might do to improve.

Anyone who’s read my blogs is well aware that I’m not a complacent person.  I actively seek out new ways to improve upon myself.  My situation.  My outlook.  My philosophies.  Spent a good portion of my life unable to act upon these things.  And when I was finally free to pursue my goals, I never looked back at those things that had kept me fettered in my past, instead, focusing on making the most of my present and future.

I may not always achieve my goals, often falling short.  But that is not time wasted, nor do I consider those attempts to be failures.  In my mind, for them to be failures, would mean that I had given up, allowing a defeatist attitude to overtake me.  Again, not something I’m willing to settle for.  It’s not that I don’t stumble and fall, often just in sight of my goals, other times so far removed from them that they’re barely identifiable.  I do.  It’s just that I’m a natural born Phoenix.  Knock me down, and I’ll continue to rise up.  Fight.  Overcome.  Persevere.  Actualize my dreams, goals and desires.  For me, failure is not an option, for I simply won’t allow myself to give up trying.