Get Up On That Board and Try Again!

 

Dennis Edwards

My wife and I have come on a three week holiday of rest, relaxation, and spiritual refilling while we also visit with her family in the sunny clime of Tenerife. Yesterday as we relaxed by a natural pool at the north of the island, I was drawn to watch a young group of female surfers not far from the shore. I had over-heard their instructor giving some last minute instructions before they enterred the water. The tide was high and a little rough and off the young women went with their surf-boards into the water.

The instructor left without a board but with two sponge supports to help to keep her afloat. She would stay in the water and try to help position the girls to enable them to catch the waves. As I watched, I noticed that some of the girls would attempt over and over again and be thrown from their boards over and over again. And yet they persisted. Others seemed to be content to sit on their boards and watch the others from the sidelines. They would never get close to where the instructor was giving aid to those who wanted to try and mount the waves.

Finally, one girl managed to mount her board and came roaring toward the natural pool from where I was watching. She had fallen numerous times before, but in the end, she had success. I clapped enthusiastically as she came close and a big smile rose on her face. She had done it. She had perservered and had succeeded.

Watching these events before my eyes brought to mind a lecture I had listened to on YouTube and an article I had read by John Maxwell just a few days before. You can find it at:

https://fightforyourfaith.blogspot.com/2021/07/failing-forward-with-john-maxwell.html

In that talk, or one similar, Maxwell shares the importance of failure in regards to success. In order to succeed, you have got to fail trying. He says we need to fail forward, not backward. Failing forward means that even though we failed, we know we are closer to success because of it. We have learned something important from the failure which will help us in our next attempt. Everyone who ever became successful failed in the process, but they didn’t let failure pull them down. They had the right perspective of failure.

Like the story of George Bernard Shaw who couldn’t public speak. He became a famous public speaker only after forcing himself to confront his difficulty by joining a debating club where he made a fool of himself innumerable times. The girl who surfed to the beach had made a fool of herself in her attempts. But she knew those failures were the price of success. She had failure in its proper perspective. Every time she fell off that board she knew she was getting closer to victory, closer to learning the trick of keeping her balance, closer to mastering the board and becoming an accomplished surfer. She was failing forward.

Those others who stayed comfortably on their boards, fearing even to attempt, never got any further. They never failed and never made a fool of themselves, or swallowed water as they fell into the surf, because they never tried. They stayed comfortable and secure but never tasted the savour of success. They never tasted the thrill of mounting both board and wave to surf esctatically toward the shore.

Friends, if we want to succeed, we need to face failure as the impostor that she is. Failure is the stepping stone to success. If you are not failing, it may very well be that you gave up trying. You have sat down in safety and security, instead of forging ahead to new goals, new challenges, new learning experiences, new failures which lead to new success.

Don’t fail backward by giving up when you fail. Failure is a prerequisite to success. Pick up your board and try again. The waters great and you’ll come home fulfilled and sleep well even though you may have aches and pains for trying. And tomorrow, you may just get up on the board and that wave and ride yourself to victory far greater than you ever thought. Remember our instructor has told us that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. But we’ve got to cooperate and get up on that board even if we fail trying! In the end, if we fail forward, we will make it! Here are John Maxwell’s notes on failing backward or failing forward.

“I don’t know what obstacles you are facing in your life right now. But whatever they are doesn’t matter. What does matter is that your life can change if you’re willing to look at failure differently. You have the potential to overcome any problems, mistakes, or misfortunes. All you have to do is learn to fail forward. Look at the way any achiever approaches negative experiences, and you can learn a lot about how to fail forward. Read through these two lists, and determine which one describes your approach to failure: Think about a recent setback you experienced. How did you respond? No matter how difficult your problems were, the key to overcoming them doesn’t lie in changing your circumstances. It’s in changing yourself. That in itself is a process, and it begins with a desire to be teachable. If you’re willing to do that, then you’ll be able to handle failure. From this moment on, make a commitment to do whatever it takes to fail forward.” ~ From his book “Failing Forward”

“Failing Backward: Blaming others. Repeating the same mistake. Expecting never to fail. Expecting to continually fail. Accepting tradition blindly. Being limited by past mistakes. Thinking “I am a failure.” Quitting.”

“Failing Forward: Taking responsibility. Learning from each mistake. Knowing failure is part of the process. Maintaining a positive attitude. Challenging outdated assumptions. Taking new risks. Believing something didn’t work. Persevering.”

The picture above was actually taken the day before. The water wasn’t as rough. Some surfers are seen in the right of the page in the distance in the water. The picture below shows the natural pool. The surfers were surfing off to the left and coming towards the pool.

Happy surfing! Get up on that board and try again. Ride that wave or fail trying!