Unrelenting failure

Unrelenting. Unrelenting was the word I was looking for in the previous post about milestones. I need to fail unrelentingly. If I fail at something, I need to try to fail at something else, as soon as I can.

The aim is obviously, to not fail. However, making failure an acceptable criteria, nay, even something to target, makes things easier. Take this blog for example. If I'd aimed at writing well and being read widely, I'd fail miserably. Instead, I aim at writing crap and not being read if it comes to that, and it's fine, I'm killing at not being very successful at writing.

It was inspired by SD back in July. He said that people are afraid of failing. They're so focused on getting things right, they lose perspective of the fact that putting on your boots and opening to face the snowstorm is the first step to winning a ski-race. If you never leave in fear of failure, you will most definitely never succeed. To get somewhere, you must target for acceptable failure. Be excited for it rather, a proud example of a failure who attempted. And that's the first step, Dare to fail. Most people fail not because they're bad at something, but because they don't dare to fail. Doing things, and failing over and over again should be an acceptable outcome for personal goals.

The second step is to fail unrelentingly. It's important because you learn, and you improve your stamina. Giving up after the first few tries is not enough, even if you've dared to fail. You must fail over and over and over again. No number of failures is enough, there's forever another opportunity to fail. Every failure is a chance to learn, unpack, explore, grow. Even if you're not improving in the skill or objective you're aiming for, you're learning more about yourself, and the system you're dealing with. It'll be tiring. You'll look at those who've succeeded and try comparing yourself, and feel like a loser. And think about giving up, because what's the point?

The point is, you will need to remind yourself, winning is not the point. Doing it, and failing while trying is. And if you fail ones, you're already getting good at it, so you need to be an expert in failing by failing the second time. And failing the third time. And over and over and over and over again. Eventually, you'll either succeed, in which case good for you, or you'll become  an expert in failing at that particular task. Someone who knows all the things Not to do. You may not succeed, but you goddamn well know what do definitely not do.

This won't make you the world marathon champion, no. You may try all that you can, run over and over and over again, and you won't still be the fastest man on the planet. But the point is not to win. You will even not be the best running coach in the world (or an expert at failures). And that's not the point either. You will however become the person who failed the most times to attempt to set a world record. The recordbooks may not make a note of it, but your personal being will. You will remember your determination, and grit, and the continuous unrelenting need to try again and again. You will build a stamina for never giving up. And one day, somehow, somewhere, in something else you care about, you'll succeed. A bonanza! Or maybe you won't, you'll be medicore, and keep on going. Either way, you'll have done things you always wanted to do, no regrets, and be satisfied that you gave it the best you good. A good-frkiin' chance of succeeding you had, if after putting in all the effort and energy you didn't succeed, it's not on you, it's on the universe.