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We would all rather be right than wrong. If things are going off the rails we would happier not being the ones at fault. Success certainly feels better, there’s no denying it, but failures and mistake will always be a part of life. As the human animal has evolved the primitive fight or flight survival instinct has also developed into a self-preservation reflex. We not only want to survive we also want to feel good about ourselves. It’s a natural impulse. As with all things in life, however, how we achieve this is just as important. Sometimes it can be more important.
We are going to make mistakes in life. We are going to get things wrong, we are going to fail, to trip and stumble and mess things up, and sometimes thing will just plumb not work out. It is simply a part of life. Of course we would like the ratio of failures versus successes to lean as heavily as possible to the success side but mistakes and failures will always be there. The ideal scenario is to learn from our missteps and improve our results the next time. Sounds simple, but it’s not.
Failure feels crappy enough on its own but our society has developed a nasty habit of equating success or failure with worth and value as a person. We don’t just admire the success we idolize the persona, which…