You Can't Lose 'Em All!

We're all pretty familiar with Murphy's Law:
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you expect.
And if anything can go wrong - it will.
At the worst possible moment!

But what Murphy didn't tell us is that things won't always go wrong. If you keep trying, sooner or later, you will do the right thing at the right time and succeed surprising yourself to no end.

This is the value of determination and persistence. It works because each time you fail, you gain a little more insight into how many different ways things can go wrong allowing you to avoid the same mistake next time. Slowly but surely, the wrong options are eliminated and we find the road to success. There is nothing new to this process of success, it's just that many people don't want to accept it. The idea of failure scares the hell out of them. Their sensitive egos can't bear the thought of others finding out that like all human beings, they aren't likely to get it right on the first try. And that's the heart of the problem, that notion that somehow we have to get it right the first time, or we have failed and are somehow worth less because of it.

Fortunately, egos are very gullible. They don't want to hear the truth and will accept any pleasant sounding lie we care to feed them. This is called rationalization (or more commonly, making excuses). Since we can't change the nature of reality very significantly and hence Murphy's Law, perhaps a change in perspective can alleviate the depression and frustration that comes from apparent failure.

"Nothing is as easy as it looks." can be dealt with by not looking at things as being easy. Under the right conditions, any human being on earth could screw up almost anything. Who is always at their best and when are conditions ever ideal? The same goes for "Everything takes longer than you expect." for who can keep track of all the possible delays that can arise and compensate for them. Truth is we don't know how long anything will take, just how long we would like it to take. "And if anything can go wrong - it will." is just a reminder that we seldom see all the ways that things can work out and success elude us.

Life is like a stacked deck of cards, sometimes for us and sometimes against us. So do your best and if you succeed enjoy the results but take no credit. If you don't succeed, take no blame and keep on trying. You can't lose 'em all!

Roland F. Arms