Failures

Here's a tidbit from Erwin McManus' book Wide Awake that I liked this weekend.

Several years ago one of the forerunners and leaders in the field of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, wrote a book called Learned Optimism. He observed that certain people have an extraordinary ability to overcome difficulties, obstacles, and even failure. They key, it seems, is that how they relate to failure is dramatically different from those who tend to be overwhelmed and paralyzed by their failures. The optimistic never see failure as personal, permanent, or pervasive, but others are constricted, paralyzed, or controlled by failures.

Lots of things ran through my head when I read that paragraph. First, I don't put a lot of weight on the positive psychology movement, or positive thinking, or prosperity movement, etc. It's where you think it and it will happen. I believe everything we are and everything we have is from God, not because of our own powers to think it into existence. Not to be confused with thinking of what is good and right and pure, which is just healthy, lest we become fearful and paranoid.

I also thought that I must be an optimist according to this description. I look at failures as learning and growth opportunities. Any experience is worth it as long as you learn from it.

If a person becomes paralyzed by their failures, by the end of their life, they will probably be the most ineffective person on the planet. With all the failures we experience in this life, a person wouldn't be doing a thing by the end of their life.
That's not the way God wants us to live. We're running a race, reaching for the goal, doing our best to the end.

I've learned that you just catalog your failure and keep going. There's always something new to do and to try. You can also learn from other's failures, but it's best not to occupy too much of your time doing this, as you can fall into the trap of ineffectiveness and fear again, just by thinking about all the failures of others.

I thought about parenting. If a child refused to learn to be potty trained, or to walk, or to feed themselves with a spoon because they didn't get it right the first time, what kind of world would we live in? We would be extinct, because these kids would never grow up and procreate. A world full of babies. Think about that.

Blessings on this breezy Monday!