Failure IS An Option

Failure does not automatically grow your character. Failure only builds your character when you respond to it correctly, when you learn from it, when you grow from it, when you say, “What didn’t work here, and what can I change?” When you think about failure and setbacks like this, your heart softens. Then you can bolster your next steps off what you learned.
—The Daniel Plan Team


This is so true, and I know because I learned it the hard way.

Oh, when I first joined SparkPeople, I was so gung ho. I faithfully did my cardio workouts, my strength training, tracked and measured my food, monitored my portion sizes; I joined and participated on Spark Teams. I encouraged others and sought encouragement myself when needed. I bought organic, ate clean, baked my own bread.

And then came the fall. My fall. My fall from grace. I fell off the wagon, and I fell hard. It hurt, and I sought healing and comfort in Chips Ahoy, Breyers Double Chocolate ice cream and Almond Joys. I spent so much time on the sofa watching hours and hours of y DVR’ed shows that there was no time left for workouts.

The end result was as inevitable as it was predictable.

I had failed and the shame and guilt kept me stuck. I did not respond well to my failure at all and it showed. I didn’t grow any character, but I surely did grow ME!

This continued for months until an annual physical got my attention. That’s where the real learning started to take place.

I took an honest look at my journey up to that point not with an eye towards heaping more guilt on myself but to find out how I could make changes that would be beneficial.

And here I am four months later--back in the swing of things---17 pounds lighter.

I may fall again. But I now know how to respond such “failures”.