Embracing Failure

I am realizing I need to change my associations and relationship with failure. I haven’t wanted to look at it. From way too early I was intensely shamed for making a mistake of any kind, and told that a mistake was proof that I wasn’t listening, that I was rebellious, that I was out from under authority, and that I was being influenced by Satan. Absolutely crazy, right? Because there is no possible way to be human and be “perfect” all the time. I know this logically, but I need to continue practicing compassion toward my body when it automatically tenses up with shame whenever I make a mistake or someone gets irritated around me.

So I found these quotes about failure to help me reparent the little boy inside who doesn’t understand that it’s okay to be human. Hope this helps someone else, too.

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“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.”
~ Wilma Rudolph

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
~ Richard Branson

“Every failure is a step to success.”
~ William Whewell

“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 have failed by default.”
~ J. K. Rowling

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”
~ C. S. Lewis

“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.”
~ Sumner Redstone

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.”
~ Mia Hamm

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
~ Edwin Land

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi