Failure is a Choice

Every day people fail and the fact is, if you aren't prepared to fail you aren't really living. Failing is something that you should never be comfortable with, but it will always make you stronger and better equipped to handle failure the next time it knocks on your door.

I have chosen to look at failure as a choice. To truly fail I would have to give in to the moment where I didn't succeed. I would let it affect me in a negative way. I watched the NBA Finals tonight and they recapped the last three years for the Miami Heat. In 2011, they failed to win the championship. They came up short. It was devastating for a team that wanted to win so bad. They had the expectations of the nation on their shoulders.

But did they really fail? In my mind they used that experience to push them and drive them to practice harder so that in 2012 they would be the champions, no questions asked. Yes, they failed to win one championship, but that failure was on their journey to win two consecutive championships in 2012 and 2013. Without that first failure, they may not have had the drive to get a win the following two years. Fighting against the odds, the Miami Heat won a battle today. They won and in my mind that is what failure is, a stepping stone to success.

You have to learn from mistakes, from missteps, from missed shots. Life won't hand you success, you have to work for it. Failure will never stop me from pursuing my dreams. Whether it be in the races I compete in, training, job hunting, or working for something better, I will always keep reaching for my dreams. The word failure only takes meaning if you accept it as defeat, if you don't learn from it and choose to change your path.

Go ahead, make a mistake, as long as you're pushing forward and learning from each time you don't get the result you want, you haven't truly failed. As long as you are living, as long as you are breathing, failure is a choice. You can choose to let it end your journey or to pick yourself up off the floor and become a success.

What will you choose?