Even if you fail again and again. Every time you fail, fail better.

I have a new favorite quote (okay maybe second favorite, I can’t relegate Maya Angelou to second place). I happened upon it yesterday in a most unlikely way. However, it was apropos to how my weekend went. On Friday I wrote about my friend who had taken up the burden of paying the price for his dream. On Saturday and Sunday the dream/goal theme continued and it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe God was trying to tell me something (yeah, I know I am bit on the slow side at times). My quote is from Samuel Beckett and it goes like this: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail BETTER.” Why fail better, instead of try better? Because failure is what brings us one step closer to our dreams. How? Because every time we fail we learn what NOT to do. Failure is the lesson. Trying is NOT the lesson it is the tool that leads us to either success or failure. Trying is the means, the avenue by which the lesson is learned. Today I have been thinking a lot about goals and dreams. A lot about trying and failing. I hear this saying a lot, “life is a gamble”, I don’t think that’s true at all. Life is not a gamble, life is a classroom a place we either learn to succeed or to give up. In gambling the doer has no control over the game or it’s outcome, because, well, it’s a gamble.  In a classroom we are given all the tools necessary to succeed, what we do with the tools is our choice to make. Today I pray our choice is this: Try again. Fail gain. Fail BETTER.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

So what’s the plan? Fail better.