Failing Forward

I have 4 kids, and each of them is different. The one thing they each have in common is that nothing can stop them when they put their mind to something. A few weeks ago I invited my younger daughter to the garage to exercise with me. She had been annoying her brother, and I knew she needed to burn off some energy. She immediately agreed and came out to the garage with me. A couple days later she asked me to workout again. She grabbed a jump rope and tried to see how many times she could successfully jump without stopping or tripping. She made it 4. She set a new goal to beat 4, and made it 5. She set a new goal of 7, and made it after a few attempts. She ended that night at 8.

She was confused why I could jump rope for 150 repetitions without tripping or stopping, while she only was able to get 8 repetitions in a row. I had to teach her that I was her age when I first started learning to jump rope as well. That was over 30 years ago! Even though I have not used a jump rope everyday since then, I learned how to do 4 in a row. Then 5. Then 7, and then 8. The process was the same for me as it is for her. We start somewhere, and then we improve. She was failing at getting 150 in a row, but succeeding at getting 1 more than her last record. She was failing forward.

I had a buddy join me for Day 1 of December Chills this week (read about December Chills here, if you missed it). It was his first ice water plunge. We were talking about how the temptation is to pat ourselves on the back when we do something hard or something new, and then never attempt it again. He brought up a 40 day challenge he attempted a little while back, which involved a specific diet. He made it 10 days. Yet that was 9 days longer than he had ever made it before! He had failed the 40 days, but he had failed forward from his previous progress.

What is it in your life that you have failed at, but if you look at it again, it's still forward progress? Maybe it's in business. Maybe it's in your family. Maybe it's in a friendship. Maybe it's in your fitness. Be intentional to make forward progress, even if you haven't reached the actual goal yet.

FAILING FORWARD,

Chris