Most people give up…it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when surrounded by failure.

Those who do succeed use that failure to drive them on.

A year or so ago I read ‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed, one key teaching was that excellence is about

striving for what is just out of reach and not quite making it, it is about grappling with tasks beyond current limitations and falling short again and again. The paradox of excellence is that it is built upon necessary failure.

Our Olympic athletes are the manifestation of that 1% through years and years of hard work and sacrifice, failure after failure behind the scenes. It is very easy to watch that success under the spotlight and forget what comes before; the one second execution of perfection was created through thousands of hours of hard work.

We can all achieve success; I truly believe that, it simply requires putting in the hard work to get there. Accepting failure and not giving in, going above and beyond to learn and build from mistakes. Most of us simply fall short of the mark, we get scared, we make excuses to ourselves and take the easy road out. I know I am often just as much a victim of my own mind set as any one else, scared of failure when in actual fact I should rejoice in it….it is our response to failure that is the key part in all of this.

Embracing failure as integral to success is the only way to truly grow. Once you've accepted that, you're already half way there.

What is a 

Mantra for Monday

?

Silent Sunday no. 31:  Reflections in the mountain lake.