Don’t Let Past Failures Stop You
Move Forward No Matter What
Welcome to the paid edition of YouTopian Journey, a Substack featured publication. Each week I will be sharing unique wisdom that can help you in the daily battles that we must all fight in the game of life. Today we discuss why you can’t let past failures stop you.
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BEFORE WE BEGIN
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THE FIRST ATTEMPT
“When I look back on my past and think how much time I wasted on nothing, how much time has been lost in futilities, errors, laziness, incapacity to live; how little I appreciated it, how many times I sinned against my heart and soul-then my heart bleeds. Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute can be an eternity of happiness.”-Fyodor Dostoevsky
It is a common story.
We fall in love with a problem or get involved with some project that gives us pleasure and excites us. We pour our heart, soul, time, and even finances into this endeavor. We have traction and begin to make real progress.
Our friends and family question our actions. They wonder why we are wasting our time on something that appears foolish or is nothing more than a hobby. Better to focus our energies on something that can help with the bills or improve our career chances.
We silence this criticism. We push past it. But the doubt has been implanted.
It lingers.
Am I ready?
Do I have this in me?
Should I have gone to a different school? Chosen a different major?
What am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
What if I fail?
And of course, the question that is the most daunting….
What will they think of me?
Many stop at this point. They don’t dare go against the opinions of their friends and loved ones, especially as they “are only looking out for them.” They give into doubt and fear. They never return to the “foolish” project and they safely avoid any criticism, pain, and embarrassment.
They also avoid being anything else other than what society has labeled them, a poor trade.
Yet the intrepid souls continue on. They are committed to this endeavor. Be it a startup or a creative project, they remain committed to the only voice that truly matters. They know they can succeed. They know that they have a reason for doing this which transcends everything and everyone else.
They push forward.
Then it happens.
The wall.
The obstacle is too big to overcome.
The climb is simply too long and too difficult to make.
The mission cannot be accomplished. The goal cannot be reached.
All of our effort, our time, and our resources, squandered.
And then what?
We begin to second guess our thoughts and our actions.
We question ourselves.
We start thinking of all those comments and criticisms that we at first ignored and then pushed past.
Maybe they were right?
Maybe this was a waste?
Maybe I should have done something else with my limited time and resources?
But the worst part? This one failure can break you and prevent you from making another attempt.
And we cannot allow this to happen. There are more grand ideas. More plans. More visions to transmute from fantasy into reality. But with these come the bitter memories of your first failure.
And you must overcome these.
Let me be clear.
You MUST overcome this bitterness and make another attempt.
But how?
How can we overcome the pain and suffering that defeat has caused us?