Fail Forward To Success
"Ukemi" - the art of falling. In Aikido, before a practitioner could start learning the pinning and throwing techniques, he/she must first learn how to do ukemi.
With proper ukemi, a practitioner can absorb the pin or roll out the throw so he/she can get back up again without getting injured.
Here's a short video showing how to fall safely.
Hi. I have been a practitioner of Aikido for so many years. Although, it's been a long time since I practiced on the mat. However the lessons I learned remain.
And the most important lesson and skill that I have learned from this particular Japanese martial art are how to get quickly whenever I fall. And I don't just mean falling physically.
In this post, I will share with you my perspective on how failure could help us attain success.
Disclaimer
The information here is all based on my experience and understanding. These are not experts' advice unless specified along with the source.
We All Have Experienced Failures
Who among us here can say,
"I never failed in my life."
Or...
"I never made a mistake in my life!"
Those statements can only be true if, AND ONLY IF, the moment you learned to walk, you walk 10 full steps to the waiting arms of mommy and daddy without falling. And once you got there, you exclaimed,
"See Mom, Dad! I told you I can make ten full steps today!"
Probably, your parents freak out and call an exorcist or a paranormal expert.
In reality, you probably fell after a step or two as you start to learn how to balance your body. Probably once or twice you hurt your baby buns and cried your lungs out.
And what did your mommy and daddy say? Did they cry in anguish...
"Our baby! Our baby fell! Our baby will NEVER learn how to walk ever!!!"
(I borrowed this line from Bo Sanchez)
No, they never said that. Instead, they said.
"Our baby made two full steps! Yehey!"
They as they pick you up, they would say...
"It's ok baby, you're still learning. Try again."
Life Will Throw Everything At You
Perhaps the biggest hindrance to success is our fear of failure. And we fear committing any mistakes.
And life will throw everything at you to make you "fail'.
If you take a look at the stories of different successful people, they all went through failures in their lives.
Col. Sanders failed to sell his chicken recipes to different restaurants before he started KFC.
Sylvester Stalone struggled and his 'Rocky' script was rejected by several producers. Stalone wanted to play Rocky, and the producers don't want him because he has a speech problem.
A producer offered him $300,000 for the script but don't want him as the lead actor. Stalonr rejected the offer even though he was broke.
Another producer agreed to Stalone's terms and offered him $35,000 only. Stalone agreed and the rest is history.
"Every time I’ve failed people had me out for the count, but I always come back.” Sylvester Stallone
Lessons From Ukemi
In Aikido, the practitioners were trained to fall safely, and get up quickly. If we get thrown, roll, and get back up standing
And that's how we should handle our failures.
We can make mistakes. We can fail on our tasks. We fall. We stumble. That happens to everybody.
But how do failures lead us to success?
Each time we fall, we roll and get back up on our feet and face life again. Learn from each failure. Don't let it keep you down.
Only then you can keep going toward your journey to success.
The key is, learn to fall safely and get back up on your feet quickly.
This is my (late) submission for the writing prompt on Success by @JonicaBradley
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Thanks for reading.
Credits.
The stories of Col. Sanders and Stalone are well known and perhaps published and used many times over. I read these stories from different sources. However, it's still worth mentioning at least one of the sources of these stories.
Col. Sanders (KFC) - https://medium.com/@dennisnafte/colonel-sanders-failed-1009-times-before-succeeding-ac5492a5c191
Sylvester Stalone - https://jdmindcoach.com/the-incredible-story-of-sylvester-stallone-rocky/
Lead Image: Unsplash
I have had a lot of failures in the past that I even felt like I was a big disappointment to my dad or to my family. Kaya naiyak ako dito sa article mo. Hahaha. Di na ako masyado magcomment baka magdrama pa ako. 😅