One of the Most Important Things Ever
by Steve Goodier
We ALL fail!
And I'm not talking about your latest baking disaster or losing
a game of "Scrabble." We fail in some important areas. We may fail at
a significant relationship. We may fail at a job. We may fail at
doing something we are convinced we were meant to do! We all fail.
And sometimes we fail in pretty spectacular ways.
Baseball player Lou Brock said something important about failure.
Brock once held the record for stolen bases. He was about 35 years
old at the time and his days as a professional player were winding
down. Brock was talking about why he successfully stole more bases
than younger, faster players.
"When you start out in baseball," Brock said, "you're young and you
have the speed and reflexes. However, when you try to steal second
base and you get thrown out, it's a long walk back to the dugout
with 40,000 fans watching you. When you reach my age, you come to
understand that records are not set by being the quickest, but by the
willingness to look bad in the eyes of others."
When Brock became willing to look bad in the eyes of 40,000 fans, he
broke the chains of fear and experienced true freedom. (He probably
also played better!) He learned how to do ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT THINGS EVER: he learned how to put failure behind him.
Unless we learn how to put failure behind us: