I had to write an admissions essay for the NNU masters program over the weekend. They give you a quote and you have to display your analytical writing skills in a one to two page essay. It was about how you have to fail to learn. I applied it to my professional life, but why doesn't that same theory apply to all the areas of your life. I know I haven't really admitted it, but I have been feeling like I have been failing in my weight (no, FAT) loss journey as of late. I feel like I have let little things sneak back into my life. A weekend cheat day has slipped into 2 or three days. One skipped workout leads to two, regardless of the reason. You know, little things like that. The things that eventually add up to no results or a slump, and if you really don't get it in check, weight (no, FAT) gain. The past couple weeks I have cracked down on my eating. Portion size. Water intake. Clean foods. And you know what, when I went pants shopping yesterday, I have dropped a pants size. I didn't jump on the scale because I didn't want to ruin the moment, but by striving past failure, I made a difference in my body. Below is a copy of my essay. See how it can pertain to you and your life. The quotes that are in it should be read over a couple times to absorb all of their value. Enjoy...
My NNU Admissions Essay:
To
learn, fail… If nothing ever breaks, you don’t really know how strong it is.
Strike out fear of failure… Reward success and failure equally-punish
inactivity.
~David
Kelley, IDEO
I believe that one good quote
deserves another. The quote from David Kelley brought a celebrated speech to
mind. Theodore Roosevelt spoke of individual citizenship in Paris, France in
1910. He was challenging leaders of democracies to hold their standards high in
an attempt to elevate society as a whole. Lead by example, if you will. He
knocked the legs out from under the pedestal of the privileged man and uplifted
the man that earned his place in society with failures and triumphs. He
emphasized the importance of the everyday man (and woman) that make up the bulk
of society. He made claim to the fact that the extremes in the sense of
individualism versus socialism both fall short of society’s needs and that a middle
ground is where we should lie. While he uttered these words over a hundred
years ago, the intent behind them still holds true today. Here is the portion of his speech that is most
applicable here:
It
is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit
belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the
dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short
again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasm, the great
devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the
end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at
least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.
~Theodore
Roosevelt
The theme between these two quotes
is the importance of failure. How do we get to an elevated state of failure?
How do we get to that place where we either learn from a scenario with a less
than expected outcome or a place where we see better the value of victory
because we intimately know the ache of defeat? Effort. Valiant effort is the
not only the path to valuable failure, but it is also the path to strength in
victory. The point of both of these quotes is that passivity will obtain no
results. You will not succeed, learn, nor fail by taking a course of inaction.
Both Kelley and Roosevelt allude to point of action as being what is notable.
Action is what positions people to succeed, learn, or fail. Being handed
something freely never has the same impact as earning it honestly. Failing can
drive you to try harder, or approach smarter, until you do obtain your
something. Everyone has a something they want to have in their hand.
My something is being able to make
the most meaningful impact on society in a way that fully employs my skill set,
ambitions, and intellect. Furthering my education is the first step towards
realizing this something. I have not spent my life having things handed to me,
but I may not have always directed myself towards a path that would make full
use of my abilities. I try hard at everything that I do. When I fail, I fail
big. When I win, I win big. Those victories and achievements are always sweeter
because I made the effort to fail in the past. Bad luck is not the sum of
failure. But neither is lack of effort, at least not in my case. Sometimes we
need that failure to show us the correct direction to focus our energies, luck
or no luck. Some might think that I decided to make a 180 degree turn in my
life during my mid-thirties. I don’t believe that in the least. I think that
the jobs that I have had, the education I have undergone, the relationships I
have made and lost have all led me to this point. I am on the course that I
have chosen all along the way. I have not been passive; I have not been
treading lightly. I have been working to get to this point. Going through the
master’s program at NNU is something that I desperately want the chance to fail
at. However, I have no intentions of failing. I have every intention of being
the enthusiastically devoted person in the arena that wants to find out exactly
what my outer limits are. I have every intention of finding out precisely how
strong I am and how that strength can be put forth to better not only myself,
but to better society as a whole.
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