Saturday, June 12, 2010

Failure

Have you ever failed before?  I know I have.  I've failed at a lot of things.  I had a semester in college where I failed every class I was in.  For a long time I was incredibly frustrated with my inability to find love.  Until I started this blog, I had only managed to lose 15 pounds or so at a time before I would gain it all back and then some.  I would fail at dieting and fail at exercising. 

I've been in some very low places because of my failures.  But there's a simple truth to failure.  Everyone fails.  Let me say that again.  Everyone fails.  Don't let your failures define you.  Judge yourself instead on how you pick yourself back up afterward.

If I had let my failures define me, I never would have worked up the courage to ask my wife, Claire, out on our first date.  I never would have graduated from college.  And I never would have tried to lose weight ever again.

I pulled myself away from the mentality that I wasn't capable of changing my life for the better.  I stopped letting my hangups get in the way of being a better me.

So if you're reading this and you're afraid to start.  Maybe it's because you've failed before.  Maybe because you're afraid to fail again.  And maybe you will fail.  And if you fail, you will be in the exact place you are now.  But the only way you're going to succeed is to start right now. 

So if you haven't started to change your life for the better, do it now.  Right now.  Put down your computer and go for a walk.  Pass on the extra helping of pancakes at breakfast.  Eat almonds instead of potato chips.  Drink lots of water.  Don't put it off until tomorrow.  Do it now.

You can do this and so can I.