The magnificent failure

We all know a little about the lives of celebrities and famous people, who did not allow setbacks to alter their general thrust towards success in life. In the lives of ordinary people too, there are a litter of experiences, which are tantamount to many experiences of failure ending in success.

The modern-day world creates unbearable competitive pressures to succeed. Students are lauded when they become top rankers. Stars are almost worshipped when their films or performances are a hit. Writers are lionised when they create immortal works.

Let8217;s face it, the accent everywhere is on success. The failures are reported with anguish and ire. How many of us seriously sit down to think, that had it not been for these failures, we would scarcely be compassionate and kind? How many of us also recognise that a long string of failures and rejection may have been the underpinnings of a stunning success?

All the steps we take in the process of growing up involve effort and like the proverbial spider in the poem King Bruce and the spider, we have to try and try again till we succeed. Whether, it is in learning to walk, talk, eat, drink, relate, write or sing, we have to make repeated attempts before we confidently do the things we later take for granted.

The creator has created masterpieces. We sometimes bungle up our lives by not realising our uniqueness and playing our parts. But, in God8217;s plan there are no human mistakes.

There are of course countless examples of people who ruin their lives by focussing on the wrong things, through addictions, drugs, alcohol, chasing after shadows8230; But, even though their lives manifest failure, they most certainly are failures only in some areas and respects and not total failures in life.

I often wonder what our lives will be judged by. Not, I believe, by whether we have been strong or weak, climbed the top of the career ladder or cruised along comfortably on the middle rungs. The real strength of a human being is a compassionate and loving heart, that can see through the apparent ugliness of things around.

Think of Abraham Lincoln and how he grew through experiences of failure to become one of the best presidents of the United States. Similarly, some under-performers in school may become brilliant performers in life.

The criteria the modern world adopts to judge success and failure are not often realistic. It looks up to the winners of awards and those who catch the public eye. More realistic criteria would consist in seeing the best in human beings who seem to do nothing extraordinary, but who manage to go through life bravely facing all its trails and disappointments.

Success is to realise the potentials that have been gifted to us by God and to become what we in a sense already are. To live authentically and to be the unique persons we are. In wearing masks and hiding our real selves, we invite a more underlying failure of sorts. But, even that is relative. There may be areas where we succeed and others where we fail.

Let us remember, that we have all been made to succeed in life8217;s battle. Failures are preparation for success.