Failure is the Key to Success
The human mind is designed to survive; whether it's pain or discomfort felt to discourage us from continuing a certain activity, or a sense of fear when embarking on something remotely outside our comfort zone, the mind trying to 'bring us home' where we know our existence to be safe and non-threatening.
But life isn't about surviving, it's about thriving.
Overcoming that feeling of anxiety and beating that sense of uncertainty isn't a way of guaranteeing of absolute success. Conquering the fear doesn't assure victory, but not conquering the fear is a definite reason you won't.
The unknown can be daunting, terrifying even, but as the saying goes:
“Everything you want, is on the other side of fear.”
And why are we afraid? Often, it's that chance of failing. That dread of 'coming up short' and not quite making it.
The irony is, failure is something we should aspire towards, not to be afraid of. Seek failure, for that is where the lessons lie. Successes are always built on the foundations of failure. Those foundations contain all the knowledge, experience and innovation gained through failing all those times before. The more failures met along the road, the bigger the success will be - success that is built on solid and stable foundations.
A failure should never be seen as an end result - it's merely another hurdle tackled on the path to achievement and with it, advantages accrued.
“Success if the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm”
— Winston Churchill
To transfer this perspective of failure into the world of fitness and our performances in the gym or arena, it's common knowledge that any changes (be it to our appearance, physique or functional output) are only brought about through challenges.
Casually sitting on the stationary bike, cycling at the minimum level giving little effort won't see you burn a great deal of calories or body fat, nor will it promote an increase in athletic performance.
But when an athlete who is well educated in exercise performs a high-intensity circuit (where maximal output is reached at every interval to the brink of failure) is torching a huge amount of calories, body fat and rapidly improving cardiovascular performance, the athlete is repeatedly hitting the point of complete exhaustion until near-collapse. By recovering, getting back up and doing it all again, they are making dramatic improvements to their body... and mental toughness.
The same principles apply with strength training, where failure should be regarded as the goal, not avoided. Repeatedly reaching failure when trying to lift/push/pull a heavy weight will trigger responses from the muscles and nervous system to improve; strengthening your body, making you more resilient and soon, you will be able to shift that weight.
Resistance training is very comparable to life in that respect. Muscle is created by repeatedly lifting things designed to wear us down. If you can't lift something at the first attempt, it's fine; fail. But rise, recover, learn and try again. And in weeks, or month, maybe even years - you will succeed.
If you fail at a project or task in life, fine; fail. But rise, recover, learn and try again. And in weeks, or months, maybe even years - you will succeed.
Successful people in life understand this concept of failure and regard it as a friend, not an enemy. They have learnt through experience, of the successes that can be found on the heels of failure.
“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that did not work”
— Thomas Edison
