Have you ever been so fascinated with the idea of success, that the thought of not achieving escaped you? I’m sure that most of us, if not all, have at one point or another been in such a state.  We focus so much on something that we develop tunnel vision,  where all we can see is the final outcome, the end we are striving so hard to reach.

It’s actually not a bad thing. Regardless of our culture or where we come from, we are taught to strive in some sense of the word.  Of course, we are told that should seek after what we want in life, what will make us fulfilled and happy. It’s very true that success is something we all should hope to achieve by our own standards and definition.

But what happens when things don’t turn out the way we expect?  How should we react or feel? How do we pick up and keep going, whether that be to try again towards the same goal, or to redirect ourselves to another?

I’ve spoken with many students at Veritas and am always so delighted to hear more personal stories.  As you may know, at the end of each term students are given the opportunity to do a self-introduction presentation.  It’s always such a fun occasion, and one that they spent many weeks working towards.  As I’ve listened to these stories over time, I’ve come to recognize a common thread in many of them: even when things don’t turn out the way we would expect them to, failure is still not an option.

I’ll let you in on a secret:  I don’t believe in failure.  To me, what happens today is just a product of what happened yesterday.  Sometimes we miss the mark in our pursuits, but that just means that it’s a lesson learned.  We are actually left better equipped to pick up and keep going with something we didn’t have before, whether that be experience, knowledge, or something else.

In the case of many of our students, I believe that they exercised this very belief through their actions.  Even when they were faced with unexpected results, or they didn’t achieve something they had worked hard for, they persisted in the pursuit of their dreams, even if they needed more time to figure out exactly what they were.

Similar to Steve Jobs in his famous commencement speech, I sometimes like to remind myself that life is fleeting. In this life, we only have so much time.  Will you join me in not spending it being too disappointed by missed marks or unexpected results?  Let’s keep on persisting, no matter what.