Years ago there was a commercial that asked the question, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” For those of you tracking with my illustration you know the answer...one, two three. The answer is three!
For those of you who are not tracking with my illustration take a look at the commercial below.
I'm sure you noticed at the end of the commercial the question is asked again, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" The answer, "The world may never know.” A simple Google search will verify people have tried but it just comes up a little different for everyone.
Believe it or not I have asked the same question about success and failure. How many times must we fail before we achieve success? Three? 33? 333? The world may never know.
However, I do know that failure and success go together, you can't have one without the other. Just like milk and cookies, peanut butter and jelly and Batman and Robin. Where you find success you will find failure.
Here are five encouraging reminders the next time you fail at something.
1. Failure Is Disproportionate To Success
Isn't it true that we often fail more than we succeed? The world is filled with such Stories. They are empowering and inspiring stories and you may be the next one!
The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. Proverbs 24:16 NLT
2. Failure Is An Event Not A Person
With such a disproportionate failure rate to success we may come to the conclusion that we “are” failures and that’s the wrong kind of thinking. A failure is an event, not a person.
We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don't know what to do, we never give up. In times of trouble, God is with us, and when we are knocked down, we get up again. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 CEV
3. Failure Is Not A Dead End
If you are on the road to success we must see failure as a cul-de-sac, not a dead end. A cul-de-sac gives you room to turn around a dead end is just what it says. Dead and the end. Don’t give up just turnaround and keep going.
“Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: “‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back? Jeremiah 8:4 NLT
4. Failure Is Your Friend
Sometimes this friend has no filter and just gives hard to swallow concrete feedback. That’s tough to accept sometimes but in the end it may be exactly what you need to hear.
But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded. 2 Chronicles 15:7 NLT
5. Failure Is In Your Future But Not Your Future
The journey to something successful is cluttered with failure. It should be calculated into the “success equation.” Even though failure is in your future it is not your future.
I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering. Jeremiah 29:11 CEV