1,000 Steps to Success

I don't know about you, but I am the definition of a perfectionist. My own worst enemy is not others opinion of me but myself. I hold myself up to such a high standard that normally is impossible to achieve. I set extremely high goals and when I am incapable of reaching them, I turn to self doubt, mental degrading of my worth, doubt my intelligence and strength, and even turn into a very deep depression feeling like a failure. The plague of discouragement fills the life of not just a perfectionist, but every person that sets goals for themselves. Now, goals are necessary to push yourself to improve and take steps forward in life; however, they are not to be an ultimatum for success. The presence of failure is not an end game, but a new opportunity to succeed.

One of the most inspiring stories I've heard is that of a woman with a failed marriage, no job, and a baby girl to raise on her own. J. K. Rowling, author of my favorite book and movie series Harry Potter, did not let the failing in other areas of her life hold her back from publishing her first book. She was rejected by 12 major book publishing companies before being accepted by Bloomsbury. She was advised by her editor to find another job because Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was not gonna make much money. Her editor could not have been more wrong. The Harry Potter series has earned over $400 million in book sales, and the last movie alone earned $476 million dollars in ticket sales just from opening weekend. Not many authors become billionaires from their work alone; however, she was the first female to do it. She could have thrown in the towel, buried her head in the sand, and believed the words of her editor that she would not make it as an author. Instead, after being rejected by 12 different companies, she continued to make adjustments and improvements to her manuscript, all while staying determined to fulfill the dream she knew she was capable of reaching.

How much more determined should you be, as a child of God, to keep pushing forward passed failures, whatever they may be, to try again? If you give up after one failure, two, three, or how ever many, you will not only cheat yourself out of possibilities but deprive yourself of ever fulfilling the plan that God has for your life.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” --- J.K. Rowling

A man understanding failure better than anyone, is Thomas Edison. In his experiments with creating the light bulb, Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before succeeding at his invention. But in the words of this man, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps." Each failure you encounter is a step closer to your success, but you must first utilize the opportunity given to try again.

There are lessons to be learned from mistakes and failures. You failing to do the right thing or make the right decision does not change who you are in Christ or God's love for you. Romans 5:8 tells us that Christ died when we were at our darkest. He knew all we would ever do wrong, but he still died. More than that, he rose again, beating death. That same power is in you if you have accepted Christ as your personal savior. You can stay down and tell yourself lies like "You can't do this", "You will only fail again, so why try", "You are weak, incapable, and stupid", "You are unloved", and I will be the first to admit I have told myself each of those lies along with so many others and believed them. You can tell yourself lies or you can find strength in the resurrection power available to you.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 (ESV)

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

Bottom line, you will make mistakes. You will make decisions that will embarrass you and you will not be proud of. You will set goals and fall short at times. You will do things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but now you see what signs you wish you noticed before to direct your decision otherwise. You will have opportunities, maybe a job, that falls through when you need to keep it most. There will be people you trust that let you down and leave you scared of being close with anyone else. You may even experience a failed relationship or the loss of a friend, but that is OK! Refuse to look at failure as an end game and commit to letting it be a springboard to a grown, stronger, wiser, and mentally tougher version of the person God made you. We each make mistakes or are affected by the mistakes of those around us; but, in the end its not about how many times you fall down but how many times you get up.