If you want to get up and walk, you have to be willing to fall down. I'm simply saying that it's not something to fear. Now, I'm not advocating failure as if it's something you should be searching for and accepting. In fact, staying in the wheelchair is a great way to “not fail.”īut maintaining the status quo and holding onto normal isn't the same thing as succeeding. There is nothing “wrong” with staying in the wheelchair. The risk of failing is inherent in achieving a goal. Risk is half of the process of moving forward. Terror of falling, confidence, regaining your balance - it’s a fascinating metaphor for life. Failure as loss of balance, the success of equilibrium, and you move forward.

I realized that this process has a lot to do with thrusting a leg out into the terror of losing your balance, then regaining your equilibrium, moving you forward, then repeating with your other leg. The notion of learning to walk has lingered in my mind, and I’ve contemplated the process of teaching someone to walk again. That was a revelation to me because it seemed that once we’d learned to walk, that we’d always know how to walk. My mother told me that the person in the wheelchair had been in an accident and would recover, but would need to learn to walk again. When I was a child, I once saw someone in a wheelchair. To get a better idea of what I mean, read this beautiful quote from Richard Saul Wurman… If your tendency in any situation is to “not fail,” then you'll find it hard to ever truly win because you're teaching yourself that it's better to make an easy choice that's “not wrong” than a hard choice that's right. You train yourself to use the fear of failure as a driver for decision–making. You train yourself to pass on potential opportunity in favor of playing it safe. Every time you choose to avoid failure, you train yourself to not take risks. They're good at taking a stand (when a thousand other people have already done so).Īnd to be fair, I'm just as guilty of these things as anyone else.īut a problem arises when it becomes more important to “not fail” in your daily life than it is to succeed. They're good at pushing themselves (when no one will see them fail). They're good at trying new things (when there is very little downside).

You're doing it wrong achievement