April 18

”Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” Charlie Chaplin

As much as I agree with Mr. Chaplin’s idea that courage is required to make a fool of yourself, I am not as convinced that failure is unimportant. On the contrary I think failure is a necessity, it’s the driving force for change. In failing we learn what didn’t work right in order to be able to make adjustments, try something new, and hopefully succeed on the next attempt. I can see in a sense that failure is unimportant such that it should never cause discouragement. Failure is the result of trying, and trying to do something means progress and often taking a risk. I believe that I grow more from the lessons where I had to fail several times than from those where I got the hang of it right away. My recovery certainly has a lot of failure associated with it, not only from the months and years of my active addiction, but also from my attempts to recreate myself as I begin to heal. Learning new tools and ways to cope with the stress and emotional reactions of a “normal” life is brand new. I am aware I am not going to always get it right. But I am willing to keep trying.

Affirmation Today I will rejoice i n my failures, count them as my blessings, and look to learn from the error of my ways.