I would prefer to fail

People usually fear failure. But why? Why fear something so useful? Failure is not a bad thing. However, fear usually is. Fear holds us back from many things which could harm us. But harm is not always bad. Harm can stimulate change in us. Change, especially when not enough is present, is very important. As most of us desperately cling to a preferred situation or standpoint, we resist the changes which would allow us to have a more comfortable life. So, from a standpoint of change, I would prefer failure to success.

"Lost deep in the woods one day,

  many paths presented before my eyes,

  I chose but one to find my destination.

  

  Time after time, I did not find my way,

  deeper into the woods I walked with every stride,

  Choosing another to search for my target location.

  At long last, after the sun had begun to stray,

  I found the final path, to my home coincide,

  and left with the knowledge, of each other navigation."

What is success, and what is failure? Why do they hold a value? Success is a reinforcement, it gives you the desire to succeed again in another endeavor, regardless of that endeavor's failures. Failure, however, holds a much greater value. Failure causes us to change ourselves in order to succeed. This is a simple rule of nature. In nature, species are born and go extinct, but what decides which ones are prominent? You could say it's the one that succeeds. But by the mechanic of extinction, it is not a group's success that determines its survival, but the failure of the other competing groups. Our lives operate by the same principle, just without such dire costs. Through our failures, we grow, we learn, we gain knowledge. It is in these comments I hope to give new perspective on an old saying; "If I knew then what I knew now". What this saying goes to say is that if one knew what one knew now, one would not have made the mistakes previously made. But you see, it was those very mistakes which brought you the knowledge.

It is by this that failure is inherently far more valuable than success from a standpoint of change. Failure forces us to adapt, while success makes us stay the same. In school, they teach you the lessons, then give you the test. But this is not a preparation for life, it is backwards. In life, you recieve the test, then learn the lessons from your failure required for you to succeed. So I urge everyone, especially those who have had a powerful failure recently, to sit back and re-evaluate. Look at your situation which you deem bad, and search for something to learn from it.

Happy New Years, may all of the following days be full of experiences and lessons, such that you might grow from them.