Category: Dare To Fail

In prior essays I suggested that you embrace failure as a means to an eventual success.  Also, that a byproduct of coping with failure is developing the wherewithal to handle difficult situations.  In this essay I will share a bit of my own story and how I put this philosophy into action.

Over the past three years I have faced multiple health issues, including severe back pain.  Since doctors were unable to diagnose the cause of my back pain from x-rays and MRIs, I tried numerous forms of treatment in an attempt to get well.  Below is a list of the modalities of treatment that I tried:

• Acupuncture
• Chiropractor
• Physical Therapy
• Pool Therapy
• PDTR (Proprioceptive Deep Tendon Reflex)
• Trigger Point Injections
• Facet Joint Injections
• Platelet Rich Plasma Injections
• Prolotherapy Injections
• Massage Therapy
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Reiki
• Essential Oils
• Rolfing
• Myofascial Release
• Osteopathic Manipulation

One of my doctors told me he had never seen a patient willing to try so many different forms of treatment.  He once quipped, “I swear, if there was a witch doctor in the middle of the Amazon rainforest you thought could help, you’d be dropped by helicopter next to his hut.”

Continue reading “Tasting The Canvas”

“I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains.  I do not wish to go below now.”

– Henry David Thoreau (from Travel in Concord)

In preceding essays, I have been encouraging you to “Dare to Fail.”  By now you might be asking yourself, “Why put myself through all of this in the first place?”  It really comes down to your goals in life.  As Thoreau wrote, do you wish “to go before the mast and on the deck of the world?”  Or, do you wish to play it safe and “go below”?  Before you choose, consider these words by someone who had every excuse to just play it safe:

“Security is mostly a superstition.  It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

– Helen Keller (Deaf and blind from the age of nineteen months)

So, what is the advantage of taking a position on the deck of the world, being exposed to wind, rain, and other unknown assaults?  How about developing the ability to handle a tough situation? Or, acquiring the wherewithal to get back on your feet after getting smacked to the ground?  How about possessing the poise to carry yourself with dignity and pride when others are cowering around you?  If you desire these qualities, then I suggest you follow Ms. Keller’s advice, and make your life a daring adventure!

Continue reading “Dare To Fail … But Why?”

“If you keep playing, eventually there will be music.”

– Author Unknown

When I was 42 years old, I made it to the District 53 round of competition in the Toastmasters (www.Toastmasters.org) International Speech Contest.  Our district included slightly more than 100 clubs in eastern New York, Western Massachusetts, and Connecticut.  I had won three prior rounds of local competition.  However, for the district contest, I had to travel to Springfield, Massachusetts.  I had been warned that the competition would be much tougher there.  Now keep in mind that I had been in Toastmasters for less than a year – and really had no idea what I had gotten myself into at this point.  I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Continue reading “Responding To My Public Speaking Failures”

In order to respond to failure, sometimes you have to be willing to feel failure.  Several years ago, when I was hitting practice shots on the golf range, my instructor said to me, “Neal, I want you to hit a poor shot.  I want you to top the ball so that it skims along on the ground.”  I looked at him incredulously and asked him why in the world he wanted me to hit a bad shot.  He replied, “Because you need to know what it feels like.”  He suggested that it is good to know what a bad shot feels like – so when it actually happens on the course you understand the cause and know how to correct the problem.  In other words, you are prepared to respond to the failure.  What does it feel like to slice a ball to the right?  What does it feel like to pull a duck hook to the left?  And more importantly, what caused the shot to move in that manner – and how are you going to respond to it?

Continue reading “Responding To Failure”

In my prior essay, Dare To Fail … Terrifically, I used the swaying rope bridge in Indiana Jones as a metaphor for overcoming the feeling of unease that inevitably comes when you try something new.  When I look back at my life, I wonder how it would have turned out if I had avoided all of my wobbly bridges.  For example, when I was twenty one, I was a junior in college.  Even though I had never seen a computer in my life, I decided to take a computer programming course as an elective.  Unfortunately, I entered a course with Computer Science majors, using a scientific language (FORTRAN), programming scientific applications.  I happened to be an Accounting major at the time, in the business division of the school.

Believe me when I tell you that during this class, I was swinging and swaying on that metaphoric rope bridge.  I vividly recall my feelings when I labored away in the computer lab as my peers came and went; completing their projects in a fraction of the time it took me.  As I sat there late in the evening, sometimes alone, I felt utterly stupid, thinking “What am I doing here?”  Long story short, I failed the course terrifically.

Continue reading “My Terrific College Failure”

Definition of Failure: The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends; e.g. the failure of an experiment.  The condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short.

Did you ever hear this one, “Failure is not an option?”  To this I say, not only is it an option, in measured quantities it might be the best possible medicine you can ingest.

A failure proves that you are willing to take risks – to learn, feel, change, grow, love, live – and ultimately to be free.  And, although things might not work out this time, you put yourself in a position to succeed … eventually.  That is how a failure should be viewed – as putting yourself in a position to have success down the road.  I don’t understand why some people lose sight of this critical key to learning … and growing.  Our own personal history demonstrates it vividly.

Continue reading “Dare To Fail … Terrifically”