The Taste of Success

I wish I knew how to tell people that, in my opinion, there is really no such thing as failure. Imagine how much easier life would be if everyone thought that way. People wouldn't be afraid to try new things, to go out on a limb and do what they've always dreamed of doing.

If we look at failure as merely a steeping stone to success our outlook on life would be so much more positive and optimistic.

It is hard to watch someone I love punishing themselves because they believe they have failed at some thing whether it be a job, school, or marriage. If only they could see the big picture of their life. Take what you can from the "failure" and learn from it.

My Step-Mother, Ria, brought the line from "National Treasure" to my attention. It is about Benjamin Franklin and his inventing the light bulb (I think) and he tried over four hundred times before he got it right. He looked at it, not as he failed over four hundred times, but that he learned over four hundred ways not to do it. I hope I got that right.

In essence it means if your walking along and you run in to a brick wall you don't back up and keep running into the same spot, you take a step to the right or left and try again until you make it past the brick wall. So how can that be failure unless you keep running into the same spot. And if that's the case maybe you should ask for help, it's okay to ask for help and then listening to that help. Believe it or not their are people out there who have made it past the brick wall and it is amazing on the other side.

I know it's hard to take advice I feel like I should know how to do things myself or at least be able to learn how to myself. "A smart man learns from his own mistakes but a wise man learns from other's mistakes" (unknown).

Big D's Mission President gave him some great advice; He told him that Big D needed to find someone whose life he admired whether it be career, marriage, or family. He should ask that person for their advice on how to attain that success, and here's the kicker, take that advice and apply it to his life. You wouldn't ask marriage advice from someone whose been married seven times. You wouldn't ask someone career advice if they'd been fired from every job they've ever held.

I am happy to say that we have heeded his Mission President's advice and today we have a fabulous marriage, a nice career, and a lovely family. We have received many compliments on how well behaved our kids are or how happy Big D and I look and are. We owe it all to great advice that has lead us to where we are today.

I'm not saying every thing has come easy to us. We work very hard to make our marriage as fulfilling for the other as possible. We have struggles with our kids that we have to over come, but that is the kicker, we over come our struggles. We do not wallow in our "failures".

We measure our success by the smiles on our children's faces. We measure success by the flutters in our hearts as we wrestle as a family on the front room floor. We measure success by being able to share our excess with those who may need it more than we do.

I have a wonderful life and if you want advice on how I got here and how I work hard to stay here, let me know because I am willing to share. I want everyone to experience the other side of the brick wall because it is beautiful over here.