Learn and Win

“I never lose. I either win or I learn.” I was struck by this quote from Spartan (an obstacle race course and fitness group) the moment I read it. It’s probably the closest thing I’ve seen to a real credo to live by: embrace setbacks as an opportunity to learn, instead of rejecting them as a personal failure.

“I either win or I learn” takes that important acceptance one step further: you can turn that fall, or that fail, into something valuable if you are open to learning from it.  I’ve since adopted this credo and apply it to my every day life – helping me to overcome the challenges we all face. Like mom always used to say: if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

Learning from our past is an important lesson. I know it’s been true for me in a number of different ways. It was true when I was trying to lose weight; when I was training for my black belt; training for a Spartan race; it was true in graduate school; and it has been true in my professional life as well.

While my list of Do’s is long, my list of Don’ts is short:

Most of all, don’t give up because you’ve tried and failed. Try it again, but try it differently. Fail differently.