Failure Isn't Final

"...it's harder than it looks...it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll."

We know that most teams in the playoffs lose their final game. Jerry West has shared how painful it is for him even to travel to Boston. Baseball is a 'game of failure' where succeeding at bat three times of ten is considered upper echelon. It has been said that winning Olympic figure skating gold means a willingness to fall 20,000 times...and get back up again. 

Dean Smith used to say that prior to winning a National Championship, he never considered himself a failure. Great players like Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and Carl Yastrzemski never won championships.

At most levels of sport, winning championships is hard. But we can make it harder by dwelling on failure. Donnie Moore of the Angels couldn't accept failure after the 1986 postseason and ended his life. We have to be able to PUSH THROUGH and ask ourselves "what went well."

That doesn't mean we blind ourselves to adversity. But to be our best we have to stay true to our process - the practice, preparation, and self-regulation that winners have. 

In his book How Champions Think, Bob Rotella closes the chapter 'Going Through the Fire' writing, "The reality is that if your dream is to accomplish something awesome, it's not going to be easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. People who go for greatness are going to get knocked down a lot. They'll have difficult times. They'll struggle with doubt and uncertainty. People around them will question the wisdom of their quest. The issue is not whether you'll fail, because you will. It's whether you'll get back up and keep going. It's whether you can sustain your self-confidence and your belief in yourself and keep bouncing back. Failure is only final when you stop striving."