Think of every inspirational movie you’ve ever seen and try to name one that doesn’t have the main star ‘overcoming all odds’ or dramatically failing on several occasions. It’s a bit hard isn’t it?
That’s because nobody wants to watch a movie where the main character is born into money, given a big company, and does nothing but follow in his rich daddy’s footsteps. It’s not as exciting as the poverty-stricken homeless man rising up and building the multi million dollar company from scratch.
Take the ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ for example. After a rather irrational decision, Chris Gardener puts his entire life savings on the line for an invention which doesn’t really come through for him. He breaks up with his wife and is left without a home, a job, money, or transport while still looking after his young son. Chris is forced to endure all of this for six months while training (un-payed) as a stockbroker for a big firm. Of course in the end Chris receives the job and his life gets back on track. This is all based on a true story, and the real Chris Gardener now is a multimillionaire. Anybody who has seen the film can vouch for it’s inspiring nature. The end scene still gives me goose bumps and people can’t help but feel ecstatic for his success;
“This part of my life... this part right here? This is called "happyness."”
But now try to imagine if Chris had received the job years before hand. Imagine he was still happily married with a child on the way, a nice house, a car and no debts to pay. He could train up in the six months comfortably still living at home and enjoying life. In the end he’d get the job and it would be the exact same result as it is now, but this would have been boring, dull, expected. Why? Because he didn’t overcome anything. He didn’t fail, or falter, or even rise. If Chris had not had to overcome any obstacles and he was living happily during his six months training then the story would have been anything but inspirational. There are those old sayings about the journey being more important than the final result. “Our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” Is one of many.
This is certainly the case for inspiration. While the end result of getting a high paying job, or becoming part of an elite sporting team are great achievements, they are made so much greater by the events leading up to them. The more obstacles a person needs to overcome, the sweeter the victory is at the end. Every time they fail, they are only inspiring themselves more to succeed. Failure is a part of life, a part which should never be taken with bitterness, resentment or wary, but instead an open mind and flexibility;
“The biggest mistake an athlete can make is to be afraid to make one”
I can never remember who said this, only that it was a world-class basketball coach.
“The greatest feeling in the world is to win a major league game. The second-greatest feeling is to lose a major league game”. ~Chuck Tanner
Every failure should be one that you can learn from. One you can improve on and one that you can endeavour to avoid in the future. I found a funny quote a while back about mistakes:
"Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from."
It’s all about desire. How much you want something and what you’re willing to do to get a hold of it. You can’t be afraid of failure, it just makes it inevitable. When you do fail, you need to be composed and determined enough to recover from it. Failure is like a spiral. It has a snowball effect which makes it harder and harder to recover from. One small mistake is easily ignored or fixed. Even three or four can be managed. But the moment you drop your head and give up is the moment it goes beyond repair.
“You try, you fail. You try, you fail. But the only true failure is when you stop trying.”
This is one of the greatest lines I have ever come across. I saw it in the movie “Haunted Mansion” a very long time ago but I’ve never forgotten it. I hope you don’t either. For every mistake you make, think of it as just another moment of relief and happiness to come your way the moment it’s been fixed.
And the truth of the matter is; everything can be fixed.
No comments:
Post a Comment