Accomplishing Your Goals #1: Failure Is Not Final

Today I’m continuing on a statement I made earlier this week in my post Focus On Your Goals #1: It’s A Brain Game. I wrote, “When you are pursuing a goal failing is not the hardest part of the process. The hardest part of the process is training your mind to stay focused on the goal, training your heart to have resolve, & training your spirit to know that a son can never fail. When the mind, heart, & spirit are intact defeat will never be known & victory is most assuredly yours.” We’re going to finish up this six part series in the next two posts by focusing on training your spirit to know that a son can never fail.

Now this may seem contrary to the statement I wrote in Focus On Your Goals #2: Staying On Track, “Failure is not an option, it is a reality.” In a short term sense this is true. However, in the ultimate sense, when you know that you are a son then failure is never final & it is never fatal. You are not a failure just because you fail. 

Growing up I played sports; I was good & I was confident. When reminiscing on my athletic experience there is one foundational component to my confidence that rises above the rest, the affirmation of my father, Chon F. Sevier. There were numerous games on the line where I needed a clutch hit, had to come in to pitch & close the game, or when I was down some points in a wrestling match & had a short time to come back. Most often than not I was successful during these times, but there were a couple of times I failed.

I remember one championship game in the all-stars where I was asked to come in to close a game & I blew a lead. Our team was eliminated & I was devastated. But, I remember my fathering coming alongside of me & telling me that he was so proud of me. I felt horrible for losing the game, but from that moment on I was no longer afraid to fail.

There was another time in my first year of wrestling when I was going up against a guy who was extremely good & had been wrestling for years. I was actually beating the guy & it would have been a huge upset, but I made a rookie mistake, he did a reverse, & he beat me by a couple of points. Again, I was devastated & my coach blew up on me, but my father pulled me aside & affirmed me in how proud he was of me, how great I did, & how much I was growing as a wrestler; that moment became a catalyst for me to work harder, reach higher, & pursue greater things.

Those moments have been forever burned into my heart, mind, emotions, & spirit. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about me or how many times I seem to fail, my father is proud of me. These experiences of failure have become a springboard of growth, learning, & confidence. A true father will never give up on his son or daughter & his son or daughter will never be seen as a failure in the eyes of his or her father. If this is true naturally, how much more spiritually?

Let’s Do This Together:

How has the affirmation of your father or lack of affected your pursuit of your goals? Where in your life have you felt like a failure, how have you responded?