Chris Gratigny

I have high goals, and expect to achieve quite a lot in my life.  I've been asked, at times, whether I'm afraid of failing.  Others have been worried that I may fail.  Yet, failing doesn't make sense to me. Before I say too much, I want to make sure we agree on the definition of failure.  The following is from wikipedia:

Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.

The criteria for failure are heavily dependent on context of use, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. A situation considered to be a failure by one might be considered a success by another..

If I have a definition of failure, it would be the following:

Failure is the state or condition reached after one stops trying to reach their goal.

Proverbs 14:16 says, "for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity." If I really am a righteous man, I believe that I'll keep trying.  I believe that is actually God's will for me to succeed, so if I actually do fail, and reach that undesirable object, it's not failure until I am no longer working toward my objective.  The only reason that I could fail is because I stopped trying.  I can only fail when I stop.  If I don't make it to the desired outcome, then I keep on trying. The only time that I fail is when I make a conscious effort to not achieve my goal.  That is why I fail. In my opinion, failure is difficult because you have to stop what you're doing.  You have to actually stop putting effort into what you're doing so it completely stops for there to be failure.  Failure is a choice, not just something that happens to you.  You have to choose that you don't really want it bad enough, and it is then that you fail.