Friday Motivation: Failing Is A Choice, Yes, I said it!


By Phumzile Mavimbela

Have you ever felt challenged not only mentally but also physically, while we are still at it let me just throw this in the hat as well, have you ever felt like you are failing beyond reasonable doubt, not the kind of failure that is a series of imaginative images created by your head in light of pressure. No, I mean actual failing, whereby you attempt something but do not succeed because something hinders you in the process, as a consequence, yielding negative results. Failing can be defined as falling short of success or achievement in something expected or desired. This feeling has a tendency to challenge one's confidence if not ultimately destroy it. I have recently been a victim of this feeling. I actually felt like I was failing, literally so. Here's the story, I recently joined the gym because I noted a development of funny feelings especially towards my body structure. Luckily I am a problem solver so upon realization of this dilemma I had found myself in, I decided to do something about it. 

This something was actually signing a  24 months gym contract. Good and well, I also found a personal trainer to help me. A brief background to who I am, naturally I am an overachiever and perfectionist, I seldom fail, or so I THOUGHT. However this gym experience taught me that my perfectionist type of character trait comes from the fact that I seldom attempt doing things that are outside my talents, I always capitalize on my strengths, which always works for me. I am a creative and a bit of an intellectual, so everything I do is always along those lines. 

I hardly attempt anything that requires physical strength because I know I don't have physical strength. So back to the gym story. Gym challenged me physically, which is something outside my set of strengths. I had challenges doing what others did effortlessly such as push-ups' sit-ups, lunches, and other body toning techniques. More so I felt like my trainer was not helping because he would call me out in the midst of the training session. So naturally, like anybody, I started feeling like I was thrown into the deep end and I am drowning, in simple terms, I felt like I had both failed and embarrassed myself. Someone would say my feelings are petty, but usually, this is how we feel about other people's weaknesses because they are our area of strength. I personally get bored when a person displays a lack of creativity in tasks I deem simple. Well, to kind of speedily this wrap up we all get to points, where we feel challenged in one way or the other. However, in all honesty, and according to, you can be only be regarded as a failure if you tried and then failed to try again. There and then this tern would be very befitting. So going back to my case scenario.

I decided to drag myself, wiped my tears, and decided to give this gym thing another shot. As such, I then decided to honor an invitation from my trainer and we had a private session which allowed us to get to know each other and he also got to understand my physical challenges as a result I have stopped seeing him as an enemy and this process has taught me to be very kind to myself. you can't be good in everything and where you lack you need to open up yourself to help and correction, you are not being attacked or condescended but you are being helped so that you can be the best version of yourself. In concluding my short tale of confessions of a young girl,  I repeat, failing is a choice,  because the only time you will fail is when you have failed to try again. Happy Friday, it is a very cold friday in Joburg, I hope you are keeping warm. 

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