A Universal Truth Of Life: Failure
Many seem to embrace change. Out of the box ideas are celebrated and cherished. New ideas are highlighted. However, I’ve always had this nagging idea that there are some things that cannot be changed.
No matter the age, culture, or technology of the society, certain things are present. You might call these things universal truths. I’m not a philosopher. I’m a not a historian either — my history knowledge is half-assed at best.
But I’ve read enough, listened enough, and studied enough to see certain universal truths repeated over and over — particularly throughout history and life. I couldn’t give you a list of all of these universal truths, that would be far beyond my ability. But I’ve identified one in particular that I’m certain of.
No matter the date in history or place on the globe, all humans experience failure. All have known some sort of disaster. All have felt the pain and embarrassment of losing control of a situation and seeing it blow up in their face.
We’ve all had our expectations dashed at some point in our life.
In fact, it would appear that one of the best ways to be a success in life is your approach to failure. Does this failure stop you dead in your tracks? Or do you learn something in this failure and course adjust?
There may be those who may see some future golden age of man where there is no pain, death, or disaster. However, failure attaches itself to us as a species like a strange security blanket or stuffed animal.
That plush toy that was beat up? One of the eyes was hanging off, the stuffing coming out? You carried it with you everywhere you went and it was inseparable from you.
Failure is sort of like that for human beings. Except this stuffed animal brings us no security or comfort. It diminishes us and pains us, but we can’t help bringing it with us everywhere we go. But what should we do with it?
Failure, being common to humans is addressed at length by philosophers; from the golden ages to the present day. Friedrich Nietzsche saw it as something to be embraced and accepted — perhaps even loved.
All things that got you to where you are today are part of what makes you the person you are. The good and bad play an equal part. The best friends you met by fate who’ve warmed your life are part. The business you started that failed and went bankrupt is part.
The pain and the pleasure, the ascent and the descent, the light and the shadow are all part of what make you what you are.
The stoic philosopher Epictetus was attributed with saying, “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.”
The stoics believed that the pains and failures that entered your path were chances for you to better yourself. The embarrassment of things falling apart can teach you how to improve your situation.
The failures present lessons. The failures present instances to strengthen yourself. The failures provide you with kindling for your inner fire.
If anyone could understand failure and being in a disadvantaged situation, it might have been Epictetus. Epictetus wasn’t even the man’s true name. Epiktētos is a Greek word meaning ‘acquired’. Epictetus was a slave. He wasn’t even thought of as important enough to be given a name.
He also had a lame leg. Some say it was broken by his master, others claim rheumatism caused this. Whatever the reason, Epictetus had many things in his life working against him.
A modern day philosopher and author Ryan Holiday sums up the concept of Amor Fati quickly and less clumsily than me in this advertisement clip.
So philosophers tell us to embrace failure and accept it. They want us to use it to make us stronger if we can. Easy for dusty old thinkers to say in front of their library, but what does science say?
The concept of failure may not be able to scientifically quantified and examined, but the effects of no stress on a body can be studied.
Every day you get up out of your bed, sit in a chair, eat, or stare at the television, your body is having stress put upon it.
Gravity is the stress being put on your body mister / miss chip eater. It’s constantly pulling on your body, forcing your muscles to compensate. All though you may never have exercised or sweated a day in your life, your body is stressing against gravity and fighting its pull.
If you think about it, your heart is pushing blood against the pull of gravity as well. Your bones are pushing against the constant tug of gravity. There’s a constant unseen stressor on your body 24/7.
What happens when this stressor isn’t present?
Astronauts are forced to exercise two hours a day on the International Space Station (ISS) to maintain their health. The astronauts’ bones no longer have to support to their weight and are subject to atrophy. Their hearts also don’t have to pump as hard, which could weaken them significantly.
The Canadian Space Agency’s website goes into depth about how astronauts can experience loss of bone density, muscle mass, and cardiovascular health unless the rigorous workout schedule is kept to fight against the effects of microgravity.
While we’re on the subject of exercise, what does exercise do to your body? Well, you’d obviously say it makes you stronger. But how does it do this? How does lifting that weight make you stronger? How does sprinting up that hill build muscles in your legs?
According to trainer and coach John Leyva at Builtlean, when you work out a muscle, you actually tear down muscle fibers. Your body works to rebuild them through a cellular process where muscles are fused together. New muscle fibers are produced once this fusion is completed, resulting in hypertrophy or muscle growth.
So it appears science is telling us that stress can be beneficial to the body and cause it to grow. The adverse also seems to appear true. If there is no stress, the body will weaken.
So maybe the philosophers are on to something? Maybe the stresses of failure can cause growth. Maybe it is beneficial.
Failure may be a universal truth because….it’s necessary.
Without failure, we may become like the astronauts on the space station. We might just atrophy and fall backwards. The ever present failure could just be the stressor we need for growth — like gravity.
So, we’ve examined my gut belief about failure being universal. We’ve heard from philosophers about what to do with failure. We’ve also studied what happens to the body when there are no stressors on it and how stress can make the body stronger.
But let’s step out of the realm of science, belief, and philosophy. Let’s move to the real world. We know failure is ever present, but is it a positive? Is it universal because it’s necessary? Let’s see real world examples.
In his book The Third Door, Alex Banayan interviews Quincy Jones, a legend in the music industry. Jones chose to spend a good deal of time in the interview talking about failure and mistakes. He explains how music was stolen from him and how he was drastically underpaid for his work in the beginning.
Jones says, “You have to cherish your mistakes…growth comes from mistakes, you have to cherish them so you can learn from them.”
Jones didn’t get angry when he explained what happened to him. He actually laughed and referred to it as a learning experience that made him better.
In his book, You Can’t Hurt Me, Navy SEAL David Goggins explains the many failures in his life and how they made him stronger. David refers to the failures and the work to get passed them as “callusing the mind.”
Your hands get calloused from manual labor. They build a protective layer of skin to protect them from the trauma of work. Your mind also builds a protective layer of skin to protect itself from the traumas brought on by failure.
David says, “In life there is no gift as overlooked or inevitable as failure.”
In the book he explains many of the triumphs of his life. But, he also explains how countless failures blocked his path before the wins.
He explains how he passed ‘Hell Week’ for the Navy SEALs three times. Impressive yes, but he had to go through it three times for a reason. The first two his body broke down and he was sent home by doctors. He learned from these failures.
He also explains how he was abused as a child. However, he looked back on pain and found strength in it. This abuse was part of him ‘callusing his mind’ to push him through future endeavors.
He saw these previous pains and failures as something he conquered. This was his training regimen for the future challenges he’d face. He saw himself as having an advantage because he was so well attuned at conquering adversity his entire life. Those who he faced who had easy, happy lives were at a disadvantage to him.
Since Ryan Holiday mentioned Thomas Edison, we’ll go back to him again. Edison’s famous quote about the light bulb brings us back to the positives of failure.
When Edison was asked about his many failures at creating the light bulb, he had a good come back. He said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
We’ll also remember Edison’s attitude when his lab caught on fire. He chose to see it as a way to improve himself. He didn’t get depressed or cry. He called his wife and kids to marvel at the huge fire.
I believe that failure is a universal truth of life experienced by all humans of every age and culture. Moreover, I believe it is with us because it’s necessary.
It’s a constant stressor that forces our inner self to work. Failure tears down our inner muscles so they can be rebuilt stronger and bigger.
Failure is what helps us callous our mind for the future challenges ahead. We may dread failure and try everything to avoid it. But when it occurs, we should not be embarrassed or accept defeat.
Amor Fati may be the appropriate response to this failure. Accept the failure as part of your life and embrace it. Know that the failure is a part of what makes you what you are. Learn from it and grow from it.
Failure is a gift. It’s a universal gift to humanity of all times, cultures, and locations. Without this ‘gravity’ of failure pulling on us, what would we become? What would the atrophy do to us? Would we truly ever go anywhere or improve?
Thank you for reading my ramblings. If you enjoyed what you’ve read, please share.
A Universal Truth Of Life: Failure
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