Don't Fail by Default

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

Just for the record, I’m going to start out on the negative, but it will get better – promise.

Musicians sing flat 

Clarinets and violins squeak and squawk.

Football pros fumble.

Businesses fail.

Marriages get messy.

Drummers drop drum sticks.

Bankers sometimes get out of balance.

Stock market gambles rise and fall.

Okay. We know all that.  What’s the point?

“It is impossible to live without failing 

at something, unless you live so cautiously 

that you might as well not have lived 

at all - in which case, you fail by default.” 

The alternative to failing, I suppose, is to do nothing.  Be cautious.  Be withdrawn.  Retreat to your bedroom and never come out, never try anything, never draw or write or sing; never sound another note on your instrument of choice, never build another building or enterprise.  Stop your life, for you may fail.

And if you do, you shall surely fail for lack of never having attempted anything. 

What a crappy way to live.  That is not for me, and I dare assume it is not for you either.  For it is in the trying, the attempting the yet to be seen that gives us the thrill of victory.  

When we finally master that difficult passage on the flute, or build that great company, then we fully appreciate the defeats along the way. 

Life is full of fears.  That is a given. 

It is in the conquering of our fears that we discover our creative spark and our zest for living.

Don’t fail for lack of trying.

Fail and try again.  Success could be only 2 more attempts away.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul