My View on the F-Word, Failure

Failure. Why is there such a negative feeling tied to this word? In our world today, we have been groomed to believe that failing is bad and winning is good. When we fail, we should soak in our sorrows, cry, escape, and tell ourselves we aren’t good enough. However, even when we win, sometimes we still feel like we failed. That’s what perfectionism is. Nothing is ever good enough for ourselves. If something isn’t done as planned the way we want it to be, even if it’s still accomplished, it wasn’t done the way we wanted, so it’s still failing. 

This mentality is sadly ingrained in many of us. For many years, I let this mindset control who I was and my identity. We all have things we want to work on, it’s when we let it consume us and control our self-worth then we know it’s gone too far. Society has created this epidemic of perfectionism that tells us that who we are is not good enough. We cannot fail. The problem is failing is how we learn. Failing is how we grow. If we didn’t fail we would never move forward or change from our experiences. We all fail, a lot actually and that’s ok. We are human. It’s the judgement we put on ourselves from our failures that needs to change. Even someone who fails often, is still learning slowly, but should never be judged of their worthiness as a person. 

So join me, feel ok about those failures in your life, learn from them, grow, change, develop, strengthen, and become your version of who you want to be. 

Perfectionism is a huge problem in this world. If you haven’t already, read “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***,” by Mark Manson. It’s epic and the underlying message is how we put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect. 

I failed at not putting out ANY content last week. I’m ok with it and you should be, too. Because last week I said bye to my love for 2 months, was incredibly busy, and used my spare time to focus on what was important to me (sleep and spending my time with one I love). This week, I’m trying again…back on the bike and I’m proud to not feel bad about my failure.