Trying Again — Setting an example

Whether we like to admit it, or not, we are setting an example every day, all day. We are showing the world our colors. In our successes and failures, we are on display. It’s easy to set a good example when things are going well, success is like that, it leads to more of the same. Failure is the challenge, it poses a problem- how can we turn failures into good examples?

When we trip or fall, hopefully we stand up and try again. The example we set isn’t in the tripping, it’s in what we do after the fall.

We are all making mistakes, maybe not every day all day, but often. Big or small, mistakes have one thing in common – they suck. And yes, people are watching, people see, but the truth is those people are more interested in seeing what you are going to do next than they are in the actual mistake.

What we do next is a testament to our character, it shows the world our stuff. It’s the place we set our example.

This is not a new thought, it is the premise of every self help book on the market – I’m just throwing my 2 cents at it.

Over the course of my life I have made oodles of mistakes – sometimes one mistake lead to another and sometimes it lead to a whole parade of mistakes. Sometimes what I did to try and fix my mistake was yet another mistake. A lot of times I didn’t learn from my mistake and repeated the same one several times before I kicked it to the curb. But the important thing through all this mistakeing has always been a willingness to try again.

I set a terrible example back in the days when I used to smoke. I tried repeatedly to quit. I stopped for ten years once and then fell off the wagon with such gusto I had to pretend I didn’t smoke for several years before I had success for any length of time again. Even today I’m a smoker who isn’t smoking right now. Through that bad example however, came an example of perseverance.

Same goes with my battle with weight. I have repeatedly lost excess poundage only to pack it on again. I keep tackling it, I keep trying one more time. I am becoming the queen of perseverance, a royal example of trying again.

I have read that we never run out of second chances. That as the sun crests the horizon a second chance arrives in its wake. That’s 365 second chances every year.  One of those second chances has your name on it. It’s a gift from the universe. All you have to do to claim it is, try again. And by trying again you are setting the best example ever.