#121 Keep going

Keep going

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill has very aptly quoted this statement which throws light on the importance of courage that plays a vital role in one’s life. This statement implies that whatever you have achieved till now is not final and failure is not that dangerous. It takes an infinite courage to rise up after being fallen down. And this makes a person unique and special.

‘Keep going’ symbolises life and life is always associated with progress, joy and happiness. Everything which has life always shows a sign of movement. On the other hand something that remains still is non-living or dead. Being dormant is a situation associated with death. This is one of the reasons that differentiate a living being from a non-living one. You might have observed ECG chart that records the activity of heart over time period. The rise and fall of curve indicates life and if it becomes straight or stagnant for long, it will denote death.

You should keep on moving irrespective of outcomes; after all you fall under the category of living beings. It hardly matters how little step you take. Until you move, you won’t be able to reach your destination, so progress is all that is needed. Nothing comes your way automatically, you have to keep moving towards the direction of your goal. It takes an ample of courage and determination to move an inch when you face failures in life. Failures are not permanent. These exist for short period of time.

Just imagine a situation in which you are sitting in a restaurant where you have never visited before. You have ordered few dishes and you have no idea about their tastes. Let’s make the number of dishes limited to five for simplicity in understanding. How will you know which one tastes better?? Just by seeing...  No. You have to start by tasting each one. When you keep on trying each dish, you are left with few options. It means that if the first one tastes bad, you know that there are four dishes left, out of which there is a chance that there’s at least one which will suit your taste bud. In this way, you are just trying to eliminate the options. So, you are able to taste the best dish ultimately. In a broader way, life provides many options, out of which you have to decide the most suitable option for yourself. For that you need to analyse each options by trying out. It may happen that you face rejections in the path you’ve chosen, those  failures give you enough idea about the future step you should  take . You learn more from losing than winning and in this way you keep going. You’ve to repeat the process until you succeed.

   

When you fail in your attempt in achieving something, you simultaneously figure out the reasons for your failure and discover some other ways to rise up. In real sense, you have just eliminated one negative trait from your personality that made you fail and added another positive trait to rise up. Hence, you have moved a bit close to success.  This is nothing but application of trial and error method for challenges of life.

Life is all about tackling challenges. No one has ever been successful by moving away from difficulties and hardships. If the time is tough for you, let it be. It won’t remain the same for long. Everyone has been given a life to achieve something significant and produce some desirable outcome. I would like to mention a statement given by Martin Seligman,

It is the combination of reasonable talent and the ability to keep going in the face of defeat that leads to success.

Sweta Sarangi

2-5-2016