You’re Not A Failure!

Motivational speaker and author Van Crouch says, “You’re not finished when you’re defeated, you’re finished when you quit.” Winners in life understand that failing is part of success. You can’t know victory if you don’t have a battle. There is nothing like the joy of something good happening for you like you do after you’ve experienced something negative.

The truth is “Bad things happen to good people.” Jesus once said, “In this world you shall have tribulation.” (John 16:33) In other words, you are going to have some bumps on the road to success. Things aren’t always going to be rosy. People that see themselves as winners simply pick themselves up after a setback and move on. If you have a dream, and you are actively pursuing it, you are going to fall short from time to time. It’s not what happens to you that is most important; it’s what happens in you!

Failure is not an event, it is an opinion. You are not a failure until you say you are. Every time you fail you simply learn how not to do something! We learn a lot from trial and error. Jay Leno, host of the Tonight Show, spends his Sunday evenings going to comedy clubs and practicing his jokes for upcoming monologues. Some go over well and some bomb. But he is not deterred. Just because a joke fails doesn’t mean he is a failure. He learns from his mistakes and continues to hone his craft. The result is success when he performs his monologue on a nightly basis.

Winners are not people that never get knocked down; they are people who refuse to stay down. There is something in the heart of a champion that won’t let them give up regardless of what they are going through. We’ve all witnessed it watching sporting events. Just when you think there is no way a team or an individual has a chance to win, they find a way to win anyways. They understand that they aren’t finished as long as they don’t quit. Failure is not in the falling down, but in the giving up!

Two of my favorite people from history are Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln. It is reported that Thomas Edison did 10,000 experiments before he found a filament for the light bulb. Someone once said to him, “so you’ve failed 10,000 times.” His response, “No I found 10,000 things that didn’t work!”

Abraham Lincoln failed at business and numerous forays into the political arena before he was elected the sixteenth President of the United States of America. He goes down as perhaps the greatest or at least one of the greatest Presidents of all time. The common denominator between both of these great men of history is they never viewed themselves as failures.

Here are some questions to ponder in your pursuit of accomplishment.

• How do you see yourself?
• Do you see yourself as a success or a failure?
• What do you do when what you are attempting doesn’t seem to be working?
• Do you give up and quit?
• Or do you get up and find a way to do it anyways?

My challenge to you today is that you begin to see yourself as the winner God says you are. Refuse to let setbacks hold you back from fulfilling your life purpose and accomplishing what you are capable of. Choose to use failures and setbacks as stepping stones to reaching your goals and enjoying a successful life! Say like the Apostle Paul of old, “I can do all things through Christ which gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)

You are not a failure!

Think Right

Someone has rightly said, “If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.” The way you think will either make or break you. It is a proven fact that you go in the direction of your most dominant thoughts.

The Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” People that think negative thoughts all the time have negative results. Conversely, people that think positive thoughts enjoy positive results.

We are only as good as our mental diets. There’s an old computer term known as GIGO, which means “Garbage in Garbage Out! What we take in through our reading, television watching, conversations with others and so on determines what we think. Choose today to rid your mind of the clutter that causes you to be negative and begin to take in only that which builds you up, informs you, and inspires you.

As Zig Zigler says, “If you have stinkin thinkin, it’s time for a check up from the neck up.” The person who does mot control their thoughts will soon lose control of their actions. All actions are a result of thoughts. In order to have right actions which produce right results you must have right thoughts.

Choose today to be more positive. Work on getting rid of negative thought processes that have been stifling your progress. Be open to new ways of doing things. “Minds are like parachutes. They aren’t much good unless they are open.” Instead of giving up in your mind when facing a difficult situation, sit down and begin to think of ways to overcome it.

You Deserve a Break Today

The human body was created to have times of rest and relaxation. The old adage, “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy,” still rings true today. In our fast paced society it is more important than ever to take a break from the stress of your career.

Someone has rightly said, “If you don’t come apart, you’ll come apart!” Rest and relaxation are beneficial to your physical, mental and spiritual aspects of life.

You need to learn to take breaks in order to clear your mind, rejuvenate your spirit, and rest your body. Schedule an extended weekend or vacation into your list of things to do. Take breaks during the work day. Go for a walk, get a massage, take a nap, do something that will help you relax.

One of the Ten Commandments dealt with the Sabbath. The Sabbath was intended to be a day of rest from work. While we are not under Old Testament Law today, the principle of a day of rest is still a good one.

Pursue Right Knowledge

The late President John F. Kennedy said, “Knowledge is power.” The most powerful commodity known to mankind is knowledge. Never in the history of mankind has so much knowledge been available as today. We live in the height of the information age. In fact there is so much information available that many are suffering from information overload.

Knowledge is only power if it is the right knowledge. The prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Solomon said, “Through knowledge shall you be delivered.” Many are struggling in life because they don’t have the knowledge they need to turn their situations around. It is one thing to have knowledge, it is another to be able to apply it to your life situation.

While the pursuit of knowledge is both noble and important, in order to achieve greatness, one must pursue truth. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Information is valueless if it’s not based on truth. Information must be accurate, relevant and applicable for it to be beneficial to you.

Pursue the knowledge you need to excel in you area of expertise. Successful people have an insatiable hunger for knowledge, not just for the sake of having knowledge, but so they may do what is right. Read everything you can that deals with your area of work, responsibility and career.

Face the Challenge

General George Patton said, “Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.” There is nothing more gratifying then setting out to do something and then succeeding at doing so. Solomon wrote, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” The joy is not in the starting of a project, but in the completing of it.

All of life is filled with challenges. You cannot win a war without a battle. There is no such thing as life with no struggle. Most people don’t mind obstacles as long as they don’t get in their way!

Accept the fact that life is filled with struggle. Determine not to run from them. Choose instead to face them head on. Make up your mind to get the best of them instead of allowing them to get the best of you. Maintaining a positive attitude when facing challenges will make you better instead of bitter.

Be like David of old. Don’t run from the giant, run to it. Victory comes to those who face their difficulties with confidence, courage, and action. If there were no challenges, there would be no battles, if there were no battles there would be no victory, if there were no victories there would be no feeling of exhilaration and sense of accomplishment.