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Sometimes It's Best To Fall
By Brycen Woodley
We often talk about success and we’re told that we should place special emphasis on achieving it in our lives. Everywhere we go and in everything we do, there is talk of success. And yet there is little discussion dedicated to exactly what success is. It’s almost something illusive. With so much said about success and with so many seeking after it, my effort is to share some insights into success and what it’s all about.
I believe that success is, in large part, a product of the experiences we have in life and what we choose to learn from them. To that end, I’ll share a series of articles that outline experiences I’ve had in life and what they’ve taught me about success. My hope is that by sharing these examples from my life your thoughts will turn to your own experiences and what you’ve learned from them that will help you to become more successful.
The first experience I’ll share took place a number of years ago when I was camping with a group of friends in the Marble Mountains of Northern California. It was a warm spring morning on the second day of our trip. We’d had an incredible time and were really enjoying the adventure of discovering what the various mountain trails held in store. After coming into a clearing at the end of one trail we discovered a beautiful waterfall that cascaded from some 150 feet above into a small pool full of rocks and boulders. We played at the water’s edge for a short time and then decided that our next adventure would be to find a way to the top of the waterfall.
After climbing and hiking our way up and around the rock outcroppings we finally found the creek that fed the beautiful waterfall. We were anxious to reach the mouth of the waterfall and hiked quickly along the creek bed. I had fallen somewhat behind the rest of the group and was running to catch up. The creek was overgrown with trees and brush making it difficult to see what was ahead. As I approached the sound of my friend’s voices, I broke through some branches and tripped on something in the water. As I fell, bracing myself with my hands, my body came to rest with my head looking directly down the waterfall and to the rocks below. I had fallen just at the mouth of the waterfall, and what was most intriguing, was that my life had been saved because I fell.
In life we become so preoccupied with success that we don’t even allow ourselves to fathom the possibility of failure. While I don’t advocate seeking out failure, I do not shrink at the chance to say that from failure can come some of life’s greatest successes. In fact, sometimes the best thing that can happen to us is to fall, or to fail.
We cannot live so afraid of failure that it prevents us from ever achieving success. Recognize that life is a process of ups and downs, successes and failures, highs and lows. No one will ever live without having to face those difficult times or those difficult experiences. These types of experiences are inherent to our existence and are what inevitably determine who we will become.
The lesson, then, is simple. Strive for success in all that you do. Seek it out and do all that you can to achieve it, but understand that failure may come. That’s OK. The success you ultimately attain in life will depend not on whether you failed along the way, but what you chose to learn from that failure and how it made you better.
Brycen Woodley, a former campaign team member to U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, is a Leadership Fellow with TRI and a frequent contributor to the Leadership Solutions Network. Click here to learn more about Brycen and how to contact him!
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