FAIL: First Attempt In Learning (often attributed to A P J Abdul Kalam).

This acronym really resonated with me when I saw it.

Failure can make you feel rotten.
Failure can make you want to give up.
Failure can make you say, “Everything bad always happens to me.”

It’s hard to turn that around when you’re in the middle of it and not even sure you want to pick yourself off, dust yourself off, and start all over again (tm Jerome Kern & Dorothy Fields, and Swing Time).

When you create something, you often want it to be blessed right away. We’re bombarded with perfection everywhere we turn, so we can get bamboozled into thinking it’s so easy and that something’s wrong with us if our first attempts aren’t flawless.

Yet we have to remember that what we see with all this seeming perfection is the END RESULT. The final, polished version. And chances are, the person behind it still perceives flaws! It’s just how human beings seem to be wired, and we have to actively work to get away from our old pal, Negative Mindset.

So. If you’re in the middle of something that just isn’t working out, or you’re worrying yourself ’til all hours over something that happened, take comfort in that everything we do really is a learning opportunity if we let it be one. It’s okay to feel bad when it happens! We’re going to feel what we feel.

Just try not to let that be _all_ you ever feel, or let it get in your way of being who you want to be and doing what you want to do. Rawr!

Originally posted on my Instagram.