How do you keep going in the face of adversity?
Here’s a model for you: think of a baby learning to walk.
No baby learns to walk right the first time. Not even the tenth time. So-called failure for them is not just figuratively painful, it looks physically painful. Yet babies learn to walk. They try and fail. And try and fail. And try and fail. For months they try and fail.
This model alone shows how poorly the popular use of the term failure describes that part of the learning process. Failure is inevitable. Failure teaches. Failure is what experience means. Babies build experience when they fall. That’s how they learn to walk so well.
Can you imagine if after one fall a baby said, “Oh well, I tried my hardest. I just can’t walk. I’m not the walking type.”?
You were one of those babies. Not only did persistence pay off, your persistence paid off. That’s how you learned to walk so well. You succeeded in the face of adversity.
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