Tag: growth

Echo IX

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill

Failure has become the most taboo piece of human nature. We fear failure, we laugh at those who have failed, we spend time ignoring the failures to pursue the success. Failure has become less empowering than success, and that is an issue. Sure, success is the ultimate goal – we long for it in every move we make. The money, the cars, the stability. Yet, we ignore the process required to find success.

Abraham Lincoln lost in 26 separate campaigns before he was elected to public office.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

Steven Spielberg was rejected from USC’s School of Theatre, Film, and Television 3 separate times.

Yet, do we know these people for their failures? No, we know them for their successes – their changing of the world as we know. The Emancipation Proclamation, the free-throw line dunk, “E.T. phone home.” We don’t see these people and think of their failures, we see them and envision our own success and happiness. Yet, they’d be the first to tell you that what they have and what they’ve made weren’t by luck or skill. They were made through passion, hard-work, and countless failures.

We need to get back to a place where failure empowers us more than the thought of success. Our failures should teach us, motivate us, and drive us to success. They should be the stepping stones to the top, the ripples leading to a wave. Failure should be an exciting learning experience; failure shouldn’t be feared or ridiculed, it should be respected.

Folks don’t race Pike’s Peak for the ease and simplicity, they race it for the turns, corners, and grit. We should treat life the same, embracing the tight curves, the hard bumps, the gravel, knowing it is taking us to the top.

Echo VI

“The thing about self-discipline is that it is necessary for everything you do in your life. You have to be self-disciplined.”
– Terry Crews

The simplest ingredient to success is self-discipline. It is your responsibility to make the best decisions, to strive for the greatest outcome, to find the purest form of self. Without your own sense of self-discipline you will struggle to find the path that you seek. You will fail early, and you will fail often. I consider failure a win if it leads to growth, but without self-discipline failure is simply failure.

We often favor comfortable hells over favorable heavens.

We find comfort in the normal. We, as a human race, have decided that the easiest way from point A to point B is a straight line. I’m not speaking in a mathematical or physics based way, I’m speaking in a self-motivation and hard-work way. We would rather be good enough than great. It is easier to dwell in a comfortable hell than to try and find a favorable heaven. We accept the drowning nature of stagnancy rather than striving to swim to the surface and pull ourselves from the sea. This could be anything from accepting the fact we aren’t happy in a relationship due to the fear of being alone, accepting heart disease because exercise is just too intimidating, accepting a failing grade because studying isn’t as fun as the 12 hour Stranger Things binge.

One of my favorite mantras I’ve ever heard is from the Marines, one of the most driven, motivated, and disciplined groups of humans. Let me preface this by saying it is an extreme example, but a fantastic one nonetheless.

“Everyone wants to get into heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

While this may seem extreme to some, its the truth. We all fear the process behind success, behind growth. We find nervousness, anxiety, fear in the simple thought of change. With self-discipline, these thoughts begin to fade. If we can somehow coach ourselves to never stop fighting for what it is that we are fighting for, no one can stop us. The words, actions, and thoughts of others mean nothing to the disciplined.