THE SILVER LINING OF FAILURE

“Success may generate courage and promote confidence, but wisdom comes only from the experiences of adjustment to the results of one’s failures… Only those who face facts and adjust them to ideals can achieve wisdom.” [UB Paper 160:4]

Thought Adjuster: “How often have you said, “I know better now”? This is indeed a fact of human life to extract the nectar of wisdom from hands-on experiences. How could you ever acquire precious wisdom if Life did not present you with ‘real-life’ situations where your ability to make sound decisions—the ones with a bright future—is severely tested.

“Indeed, your character gets shaped through your many encounters with problematic situations where you are called to be resourceful, as well as courageous. If success was dished out on demand on a silver platter, what could motivate you to get off the comfortable couch of your complacent reality? On the other hand, such a lifestyle does not provide you with any ground to be rightfully proud of YOUR non-existent achievements.

“Genuine success is inbred by adequately dealing with adversities. Just as undergraduates have to take many increasingly challenging exams to obtain the coveted diplomas, the students of Life are rewarded according to the degree of difficulty of their pop-up tests. Those are not open-book tests; neither are they of the type where the correct answer is suggested between two wrong ones—thus significantly reducing the demand placed on your brain-power.

“Failure is indeed a veryefficientteacher, as it evaluates your homeschool assignmentswith red pen marks. As you ponder them, you will devise a strategy to turn mediocrity into excellence, as the obstructive block of denial will have been moved out of the way—the proverbial wool pulled off your blind eyes.

“Dear ones, success is always welcome but, even more so, when it comes after enduring the heartaches of failure. The silver lining of failure is that it is humbling—not humiliating as some perceive it to be when pride still stands in their way. In hindsight, some of your harshest defeats will give you ground to express gratitude, as they made you braver and street-smarter—shaping you into the determined type that does not take ‘no’ for an answer but keep searching for the correct answer.”