365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

Day 17: On Rising from the Ashes of Failure

A  setback  has  often  cleared  the  way  for  greater  prosperity.  Many

things have fallen only to rise to more exalted heights.

—Seneca the Younger

 

16

No  matter  how  self-disciplined  you  are,  there’s  no  escaping  the  fact

that sometimes you’ll stumble. Perhaps you’ll eat a piece of a cake instead

of  a  salad.  Maybe  you’ll  skip  a  workout  out  of  laziness.  It’s  possible  that

when  your  efforts  result  in  a  failure,  you’ll  lose  the  self-discipline  to

continue and revert back to your old undesirable habits.

It’s  all  par  for  the  course,  and  the  sooner  you  accept,  it,  the  easier  it

will  be  to  handle  the  setbacks  once  they  occur.  However,  don’t  consider

your failures a useless waste of time and energy; a failure can often present

new opportunities or lead to important realizations.

I failed to learn how to play tennis despite putting considerable amount

of  time,  energy,  and  money  into  it.  However,  this  made  me  realize  that  I

wanted to concentrate on rock climbing, and the failure with tennis cleared

the way for dramatic improvements in my climbing performance.

When  discouraged,  remember  that  all  struggles  present  opportunities

that, given enough time, you can convert into successes or lessons that will

aid you in other areas of life.

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