An important lesson I have learned throughout my wellness journey is that it is okay to fail, and that failure is not final if I get up and try again. It is okay to fall short. It is okay to be exhausted, and to fail again and again and again. Failure is part of the process. It is unrealistic to think that I will never fail, and that I will get something right the first time I try it. Spoiler alert: Everyone falls short. Everyone has moments of failure. Everyone falls down at times. It is the choices we make when we fall short, when we fail, when we fall down that makes all the difference in the world. We do not have to give up. We can choose to keep trying. We do not have to feel embarrassed. We can choose to be proud of our efforts. We do not have to feel shame. We can choose to praise ourselves for our perseverance. We do not have to beat ourselves up. We can choose to celebrate our patience and show ourselves love. We do not have to be afraid to try again. We can choose to be courageous. We do not have to rehash our failures. We can choose to remember that no matter how many times we fail, we can still try again and again until we succeed. We can choose to try again. We can choose to get back up when we fall down.
Would you like to hear just some of my wellness failures over the years? I will even put it in a little table for you (disclosure: I have failed at many, many, many more things, but there is not a blog post long enough to highlight all of my failures). This is at the top of my list of “top things I thought I would never post on the internet,” but here goes:
| My Goal | Number of times I Failed | Have I succeeded yet? |
| Quit drinking Cherry Coke | Countless!! Seriously, I failed so many times over the course of at least 10 years that I lost track. Boy, oh boy, was I addicted to Diet Coke, then Cherry Coke. | YES! I finally did it! I have not had any soda to drink in almost two years! |
| Exercise Regularly | Again, Countless!! | YES, but this is an ongoing battle. I love to exercise now, but at times physically cannot exercise as intensely or as long as I would like because of autoimmune flares. Each time I experience then heal from an intense autoimmune flare, I have to restart my exercise habit, and it is just as hard for me. |
| Showing myself love, kindness patience, and understanding. | Countless!! Notice a theme here? I have failed so many times, I cannot begin to count. | YES, but this is also ongoing. I am only human and I do slip up, I am happy to report that most of the time I am good at being kind, patient, and loving with myself. |
| Eating healthy, nutritious, mostly home cooked meals | Countless!! Even before being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, I tried and failed to eat healthy many, many times. | YES, but this is also ongoing. I cannot even believe how healthy I eat now. I wish you could have seen me, my emotional eating, my lack of self-control (I’m looking at you cookie dough!), and my eating habits before. I cannot believe how much I cook at home now. This is proof that anyone can change! |
| Put my Hashimoto’s into remission | Countless!! I work on my healing and wellness journey everyday. | Not yet. While I do not experience most of my Hashimoto’s symptoms anymore, I have not technically put my Hashimoto’s into remission yet, according to my TPO (antibodies) blood test. I do occasionally have flares when I fail to take care of myself or manage stress. I am trying the best I can, so I am sure that I cannot help but succeed at this at some point! |
So, you see? I fail left and right. Oh boy, do I fail. Everyday. However, I choose to love myself through it, and to keep trying. I choose to be kind to myself, to tell myself it is okay, and that I can do better next time. I make a determined effort each day to let go of my fears, release my self-doubt, and dig down deep to find the courage to try again. Is it easy? No, it is not, but you know what else I realized? That time is going to pass whether I keep trying, or whether I give up. If I keep trying, if I dust myself off each time I fall down and I choose to get back up again, then maybe this will be the time I will succeed. Maybe this will be the time I will nail it. Maybe this will be the time I accomplish my goal. I am determined to try so many times, that eventually I cannot help but succeed.
I am cheering each of you on in whatever goals you may be working toward. I am in your corner. I am rallying behind you. When you fall down, I am right there, helping you back up again. I believe in you. I BELIEVE IN YOU!
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” -Thomas Edison
