And I'm not talking about your latest baking disaster or
losinga game of "Scrabble." We fail in some important areas. We
may fail ata significant relationship. We may fail at a job. We may
fail atdoing something we are convinced we were meant to do! We all
fail.And sometimes we fail in pretty spectacular ways.
Baseball player Lou Brock said something important about
failure.Brock once held the record for stolen bases. He was about 35
yearsold at the time and his days as a professional player were
windingdown. Brock was talking about why he successfully stole more
bases
than younger, faster players.
"When you start out in baseball," Brock said, "you're young
and youhave the speed and reflexes. However, when you try to steal
secondbase and you get thrown out, it's a long walk back to the
dugoutwith 40,000 fans watching you. When you reach my age, you
come tounderstand that records are not set by being the quickest,
but by thewillingness to look bad in the eyes of others."
When Brock became willing to look bad in the eyes of 40,000
fans, hebroke the chains of fear and experienced true freedom. (He
probablyalso played better!) He learned how to do ONE OF THE MOSTIMPORTANT THINGS EVER: he learned how to put failure behind
him.
Unless we learn how to put failure behind us:
· We will never ask for what we need for fear of rejection.
· We will never ask a boss for a promotion for fear of her
saying no.
· We will never go back and take classes for fear of
failing.
· We will never change careers for fear of it not working
out.
· We will never forgive others who hurt us for fear of being
hurt bythem again.
· We won't do the things we want to do for fear of letting
ourselvesand others down.
Unless we learn how to put failure behind us, we won't take
any riskat all! And we'll never fully live, either.
The Bible talks about forgetting what is behind and
straining towardwhat is ahead. Learn to put your failures behind you and you
can goplaces you never dreamed possible.
Steve Goodier
Publisher@LifeSupportSystem.com is a professionalspeaker, consultant and author of numerous books.
Visit his site formore information, or to sign up for his FREE newsletter of
Life, Loveand Laughter at
http://LifeSupportSystem.com.