A dead end: That place of failure and despair that takes away from us all our dreams and desires, swallowing them into darkness. Once we are there, it seems to be no escape, our hands seem to be tied, our legs seem to be stuck into the ground while our heart seems to break apart. Everything seems to be over, but there is always a solution. The question is: Are we going to fight and find it or are we going to give up our dreams so easily?
How easy it is to dream, but how difficult it is to make them become true! The problem is not that they are impossible or unlikely to happen, the problem is that we give up very easily. But why? Because of failure. We are so afraid of it that we don’t even try to make them happen, or if we do, we give up in the first instance when we meet with failure. And that’s the moment when we get into a dead end, and every dream we have vanishes into the darkness of failure.
The problem with failure is that it is not easy to digest. The taste of failure doesn’t go away so easily from our mouth, that bitterness remains in our palate like needles digging into our tongue. The smell of failure is so profound and disgusting that penetrates so deeply that we can’t smell a jasmine even if we try. Failure poisons every part of our body, contaminates our soul, and breaks our heart. Failure rots us, contaminates us, breaks us, destroys us, paralyzes us and drown us. Failure kills us inside and destroys our dreams, desires and goals. But, does failure defeat us?
“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Ernest Hemingway
The answer is: No. Failure does not defeat us, but we are defeated when we give up. It is not failure what defines our future, it is us and how we deal with it what defines and creates our future. Failure corners us into a dead end but it does not block the entry. At any given moment we have the chance to turn around a find another way to get to our dreams. The problem is that failure seems to be our enemy when in fact it is only trying to help us. It is only trying to say to us that the path we follow is not the right one.
But we see failure as a dead end rather than an opportunity to do things in a different way. Our beliefs and fears about failure are so wrong that we have come to believe that failure is our worst enemy, when in fact we are our worst enemy. Failure challenges us, it tests us and brings us to the limit. It can destroy us, stealing us all our hopes of making one day all our dreams and goals become a reality, but what really defeat us is our choice of giving up. Failure puts us into a dead end but it is our choice to remain there or turn around and find another way.
“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley
Perhaps you already have been in a dead end or maybe you feel you are in a dead end now. I have experienced that, and I believe all of us, or at least those who have dared to follow their dreams have experienced failure once in their lives. The experience of being in that place of darkness, confusion and despair is awful. The feeling of sorrow invades our soul, the lights go out, the road disappears and suddenly all our dreams and goals are overshadowed by our sadness, pain, frustration and fears. It is hard to see with clarity in that moment of darkness, but it is there when we have to see beyond it.
It is in that moment when we have to see failure as an opportunity and not as a dead end. When you run into a dead end just simply turn around and find a better way. Embrace failure as an opportunity, and not as a punishment, and you will find the key to success. Learn from them, and once you do that, you will see them as they really are: an opportunity to reveal the greatness inside you, an opportunity to declare that your dreams are bigger than your fears, an opportunity to express that no matter how many times you fail, you will make your dreams come true. In the road to make our dreams come true we will face many dead ends, it depends on us whether we are going to give up and remain there or if we are going to find another way, the decision we make will determine either our victory or our defeat.
Then my friend, will you give up so easily or will you find another way to achieve your goals and dreams?