Failure is the seven-letter word that no one wants to experience. Unless, of course, you’re playing the game Scrabble, then it is a welcomed guest being worth 10 points, not too shabby. However, if one stops and thinks about the other positives that come from failure, maybe it wouldn’t be considered so bad after all.
A recurring theme throughout my debut novel revolves around overcoming fears and failure. It is, without a doubt, a horror novel at heart but not your typical horror. The writing style I implemented comes from the same vein as Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (Original Series). His writing style and thoughts, timeless to this day. His inspiration is why I decided to finally write my novel. I wasn’t afraid to fail. I knew that it would be a lot of work putting a functional story together, but I did not let it deter me from reaching my goal.
There is that word again, fail/failure—life’s natural antagonist. We cling to aspirations for success in everything we do constantly cutting our minds on the jagged skies of hope. The wounds heal with time but leave mental scars that serve as a roadmap of our life experiences. The lines that crack our faces also tell a similar story. The life experiences offered with age makes us tried and true. Hardened by past failures and now of sound minds, we did not let our minds unfurl because we persevered. We’ve learned something along our journey, we now know not to fear failure.
How did we get to this point, though? It is a simple question, so there is a simple answer.
We failed.
The next question one can ask is, “if I did fail, then what served as the impetus for my return?”
The answer is motivation and inspiration.
The motivation and inspiration that we feel are derived from our past failures. One cannot be afraid to fail. We often build failure up into a monster when it is just a mouse pecking at our toes. We make failure the summit of our fears way too often. We stand and look at this summit and say, “maybe one day I’ll climb to the top,” and then return to our complacent ways. If we have that mentality of sitting in the muck and mire that is complacency, then one will never get to stand atop the mountain of slain adversities.
So at this point, the next question may sound something like, “well, this sounds like a decent thought process, but how do I overcome failure? What if I keep failing? What if failure is my comeuppance? What if? What if?”
The main ingredient in overcoming failure is trying.
Trying shows a willingness that one does not want to sit in failure. Confidence and the belief in something gives one the strength to try. In the event of failure, we should learn from the experience and continue to try, as it is imperative that we not let failure reign supreme. No matter what the failure is, whether mental or physical, we strengthen ourselves and come back to face it again. A light in the darkness represents the efforts of trying. As the light gets brighter with every attempt, it shows us that failure can be conquered. To those who try, know this; the light that is getting brighter in the darkness is not always an oncoming freight train of failure.
The bottom line is everyone fails. It doesn’t matter how often we fail. What matters is if we get back up to try again. We should all take a step back when we experience failure, take a deep breath, and try again, understanding that it is just the natural ebb and flow of life.
Thanks for reading!
Travis
Travis J. McRoy 