“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”
– CONFUCIUS
There’s one thing toddlers do when they are learning to walk and we can all learn from this: they get up quickly anytime they fall.
Have you observed a toddler learning to walk? It’s amazing and I really love to see it because it reminds me of our own ability and power we have in case we fail.
Babies do a lot of preparation work for their first steps, it’s a process and it’s a huge achievement when they are finally able to make their first wobbly steps. They are always on the edge of losing balance and they fall down so often during this learning period. Nevertheless, when they fall down they don’t make a great deal out of it. Sometimes they cry a few tears, but seconds later they are up on their feet again. Unless their parents or other adults pay excessive attention to it. Then they become addicted to getting attention this way and they stay on the ground a lot longer than they would naturally do.
As adults, when we fail we often waste a lot of energy in frustration and self-pity and we have feelings of anger and resentment. While I am not saying to completely ignore those feelings, staying too long with them doesn’t provide any value to us either. The faster we get back up and get going again, the more confident we will be to move on. In the end, we will notice that failing is just losing the balance for a bit or making a small misstep. Maybe our steps will feel wobbly to us as well, but who cares? I wouldn’t be surprised if the great Confucius was also observing toddlers learning to walk when he came up with his quote “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”
