Part 2 Failure Is A Better Teacher Than Success Series

Refined by Failure - 2

Failure is a far better teacher than success.

Two great differences between those that fail backwards and those that fail forward.

Failing Backwards Failing Forwards

Blaming others Taking Responsibility

Repeating the same mistakes Learning from each mistake

Expecting Never to fail again Knowing failure is a part of progress

Expecting to continually fail Maintaining a positive attitude

Accepting Tradition Blindly Challenging Outdated Assumtions

Being Limited by Past Mistakes Taking new risks

Thinking I am a failure Believing something didn’t work

Quitting Persevering

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake.”

Professional Baseball Players - If they strike out 7 out of 10 times they are considered great!

One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures. Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind.

There is a difference between I am a failure and I failed.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (New International Version)

16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

So we must change our perspective of failure!

1. People think failure is avoidable – it’s not!

1 Corinthians 10:12 (English Standard Version)

12Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Here are some recent rules for being Human.

1. You will learn lessons

2. There are no mistakes – only lessons

3. A lesson is repeated until it is learned

4. If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they will get harder

5. You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when you actions change

2. People think failure is an event – It’s not!

Just like success, failure is not an event, it is a process. It’s not some place that you arrive.

People don’t wake up one day and say:

• “I want a divorce,”

• “Oh I got an F”

• “Wow, I am a drunk”

• “I think I will look at pornography today”

Failures begin in the heart.

Proverbs 18:12 (English Standard Version)

12 Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty,

but humility comes before honor.

Proverbs 4:23 (English Standard Version)

23Keep (guard) your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

3 .People think failure is determined by other people - it’s not

Noah:

You are the only person that can really label what you did a failure…no one else.

4. People think failure is their Enemy – it’s not!

VIP

We think everyone is thinking about it. That they are consumed by our failures.

NBA coach Rick Pitino states it even more stongly. “Failure is a good thing,” he says, “It’s the fertilizer. Everything I’ve learned about coaching, I’ve learned from making mistakes.”

“The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one’s who do.”

Another person stated, “When we give ourselves permission to fail, then we give ourselves permission to excel!”

5. People think failure is irreversible – It’s not!

Peter and his denial

There’s a saying in Texas, “It doesn’t matter how much milk you spill, just as long as you don’t lose your cow!”

What kind of perspective do people that have been refined by failure have? “Mistakes don’t make them want to give up and Success doesn’t make them think that they are above others.”