Life is an adventure, it is all about learning. I like to call myself a life long learner, I want to continue to learn, make mistakes, grow and change.
When we are not successful with something, how do we look at it? Do we look at is as a mistake? A failure? Or a lesson learned? Do we give up, never try again or take what we have learned and apply it when we try again? How many times are we willing to try again?
I have watched a couple of boys at the Little League ballpark over the years. One is gifted in sports and excels most of the time without much effort. The other boy is not gifted when it comes to sports. He has other talents. But I love watching him on his life’s journey. At the games, he comes with a positive attitude, he applies himself and he works hard to contribute to the team. When he “fails”, he keeps that positive team sprit and supports the other boys.
On the other hand, the more talented boy (when having an off day) throws a fit, gets super angry, and blames everyone expect himself. When he is in one of these moods, he does not support and cheer for the rest of his team.
He expects to be perfect every time and has not learned how to handle his off days with grace. The other boy works hard no matter what kind of day he is having and he handles each situation with grace.
Since I am using baseball stories, let’s look at Reggie Jackson who played for the KC Royals, NY Yankees among others. Reggie holds the record for the MOST strikeouts in all of baseball. He is in first place with 2,597 strikeouts. On the other hand, he is 14th on the list with hitting the most home runs at 563. (Barry Bonds is number one with 762, Babe Ruth is #3 with 714).
I love these statistics. One way to look at Reggie is to say he failed at hitting 2,597 times. Wow, that is a lot of failures. But, he is also on the top part of the list in hitting homeruns. What a great accomplishment.
The good news is he did not let his strike outs or failures define him. He continued to play, learn, grow and develop his record of success.
As I think back on the two young baseball boys, my bet in life is on the one with more failures. I want to remember him and be more like him. I want to accept my failures with grace, learn from them and continue to grow on my journey in life.