The Kung Fu Panda movie series is one which will leave you in splits, but it also has some really valuable life lessons. I absolutely love the way small nuggets of wisdom have been inserted at different points in the films.
The quote above was told to Po (the cute Kung Fu Panda) when he was having second thoughts about continuing the teaching job entrusted to him by Master Shifu. His first day of teaching was horrendous and everyone made fun of him. His friends, who he had to teach, gave up on him after the very first session. This left him dejected and he wanted to quit.
How many times has the same thing happened to us? We see an uphill task and we want to flee. We know that quitting is the easy way out, so we often resort to it. But quitters never succeed because they don’t learn the lessons which one can master only through experience and failure.
Life is a lesson, even if pain is the teacher.
Failure is something which can break you down, or you can chose to help it build you up. Sure it will be hard at first – been there, done that. But once you realise that failure is necessary to grow, your life will change.
For years I spent my days playing victim and blaming everyone around me. I never took responsibility for my life and I never improved. Fortunately, I read a few amazing books and they’ve changed my attitude towards life. Better late than never
Here are few tips I’ve learnt, which will help you cope with failure :
Accept Responsibility – Blaming situations or people is an easy way out, but it leaves one stuck in a circle of entitlement. This prevents us from learning lessons from our mistakes. Once you accept responsibility for your life, you will soon see how your attitude towards failure and success changes.
Stop Playing Victim – This one is on the same lines as the previous point. Playing victim will help you feel good for a short period of time, but it will destroy you eventually. Once you think that you are the target of all bad things, your life will not expand in a positive direction. In order to see positive changes, you have to learn to change the way you think.
Evaluate Your Mistakes and Learn From Them – Failure is a great teacher, provided you agree to learn from it. When you’ve experienced a setback, take some time to reflect on what went wrong. Maybe it was your execution, maybe it was your attitude. Actively participate in the learning process.
See The Bigger Picture – When we fail we often get so bogged down by the negativity that we rarely realise that this was just one setback and we can still succeed. In the future once you are successful, you will look back at the failures and thank God for them.
Persevere – Failure can knock you down, but you need to make sure that you get back up, every single time. Resolve to work so much harder than before. Through failure, you are now equipped with lessons you would have never learnt otherwise, use them wisely
A few books which have helped me realise these lessons are :
‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F***’ by Mark Manson
‘The Big Leap’ by Gay Hendricks
‘The Power of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg
‘The Power of Now’ by Echart Tolle
‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho
We learn through experience and pain. Life is a miracle and once you learn to accept life’s challenges with a smile, you will only move forward.
Be brave, take risks, get back up each time you fall. Once you know what your heart truly desires, the entire Universe will conspire to help you achieve it.
Thank you for reading! Stay blessed!
©TheKindTempest