Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the true definition of failure?
Failure, by definition, a lack of success. The definition of success, the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. According to these very guidelines, failing is to be marching toward an end point and for one reason or another, not getting there. Is failure a possibility? Of course it is. There are no definites in life. But failure is also self-induced. It is not an outside occurrence.
It's not a coin flip or an event that we helplessly watch unfold before us. It's not up to chance.
Chapter 2: How can failure be viewed as a decision?
Failure is a decision. The decision to end that same march that you once started. Just like putting on your shoes is a decision, just like traveling or running or eating, these are decisions that we make. And when the word is all too frequently brought up in everyday conversation, what's evident is that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to quote-unquote fail.
It's spoken about as though it's something that's projected onto us, as though failure is an illness or catastrophic event, something that emerges and subdues its victims. And speaking of it in such a way misdiagnoses the problem. It's easy to say so-and-so started a business and it failed. So-and-so didn't make the team, so they failed. But there's more here.
One does not fail until they take a step back, look at the situation, and say that it's no longer worth it anymore.
Chapter 3: What common misconceptions surround failure?
You don't fail until the moment you raise the white flag and say, I cannot do this. Because if you're out there, if you're changing, adapting, stretching yourself and your abilities, if you're seeking help, mentors, learning, growing, embracing the struggle, being relentless in your effort, no one can bring that word into the conversation. It cannot exist.
If you are moving forward, you are not failing. You cannot be working towards something and failing at the same time. It is impossible. You can have your ups and downs. No one will refute that. You can get knocked on your ass, have moments of fear and doubt, but that is growth, not failure.
Growth is taking the uncomfortable and adapting to it, overcoming the obstacles that inevitably get in your way.
Chapter 4: How does growth relate to discomfort and failure?
Failure, on the other hand, is deciding that growth is no longer worth the sweat. Because I'll tell you what, there's always a way to win, and I truly believe that. Sometimes the cost is extreme. Sometimes the price is more than everyone around you is willing to pay. But that's a conversation that you need to have with yourself. Just know that if you want it, somewhere there exists a solution.
And knowing that is the beginning of greatness. It is the start of success. And as for that question, what if I fail? Here's some insight.
Chapter 5: Why is it important to choose growth over stagnation?
That thought is wasted time and it is wasted energy. Because as far as your goals go, you pull the strings. You are the writer, you are the director, and you are the actor. Failure only occurs when you write it into your script, when you choose it for an ending. And it is one ending. One of many. It is one approach of many.
Once you've started that march towards what's important to you, do not let failure be the choice that you make. Choose growth. Choose the adventure.
Chapter 6: What role does belief play in achieving goals?
Choose the long way home. Victory over defeat, the uphill climb over regret. Choose to move forward when most wouldn't. It's the decision you'll always be thankful you made. I wouldn't make excuses for you. I wouldn't look you in the eye and tell you everything is great when in actuality the wheels are falling off the wagon.
No, I'd point to the insufficiencies and remind you that you're capable of chipping away at them. I think that pragmatism can save someone's life. But guess what? Being human is knowing there are things you don't know.
Chapter 7: How can we redefine our relationship with discomfort?
Realizing that growth is picking up little understandings along the way and bringing them with you into the future. Allowing them into the evolution that is you. And part of my personal evolution was coming face to face with the fact that looking forward isn't all of it. It's part of it. Yeah, we need to be better, of course. Yeah, we can always squeeze more value out of the time allotted to us.
100%. This forward progression, as far as I'm concerned, is intertwined in human fulfillment. But we are, in this moment, the manifestation of the obstacles we've already overcome. We are the times we wanted to stop and didn't.
Chapter 8: What steps can we take to embrace change and growth?
We are the losses we bounce back from and the adversity we forged into opportunity. We're the endings that we melted down into beautiful beginnings. We are the mistakes, the obstacles, the little encounters with hell that didn't define us, but instead changed us. And that matters. So quick story time.
For about five years after I graduated college, some of my friends and I had this fantasy baseball league we'd use to stay in touch, right? And I think even they would begrudgingly admit that I was oddly good at it. I won like three or four out of the five years or something like that. And you know what my strategy was? It was simple.
I picked players based on who they were over the course of their career, not based on how they performed last year, which is a trap people seem to fall into, right? So a guy that hits 30 home runs six years in a row and then last year suddenly only hits seven, it's not out of the question to think he'll hit 30 again, revert back to the mean, to his average, his track record.
That to me is more meaningful than some recent struggle, and I took that bet every time. Now, as you can imagine, the point I'm making here has nothing to do with baseball. It has everything to do with life in general. So much of the time, we completely focus on the current insufficiencies.
The bad things happening now, the misfortunes in our lives, we're striking out and our brain goes into panic mode. It says, gap, gap, gap. How do we fill it? And again, yes, that's important. And our plan for resurgence is necessary, but we can't forget who we are and what we've done. We can't overlook our track record. As the saying goes, you've survived 100% of the bad days.
You've lived through countless struggles. You've climbed out of many catastrophes, at least I have. And it seems as though it's when we need that reassurance most that we are most inclined to forget. It's when we, more than any other time, need to prove to ourselves that we are unconquerable, that we question our ability to persevere. I'd never say to you the road ahead will be easy.
I'm not saying it won't suck at times. I'm not saying it won't take all of you. I'm merely saying that you are equipped to emerge victorious, to handle not some of it, but all of it. I'm saying that the person in the mirror is stronger than you can even imagine. But understand, you're not operating on blind faith here. You're not hoping for some miracle.
You're operating on your own record of success. What you do is find a way. What you do is win. You don't believe me? Look over your shoulder. Take a trip down memory lane. Glance back at all the mountains you've already climbed. And life, it won't be smooth sailing all the time. You'll have your slumps and your adversity, no questions. but they're not you. They are what you were made to navigate.
Everything has brought you to this point. And it's great to focus on this point, but don't lose the everything. Sometimes it's not about who you will be some day. Sometimes it's about what you've already become. It's about who you are Now. The world reflects back at us what we currently are. Like a giant mirror projecting the movie that's playing in our heads. We lay on the horn in traffic,
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