Failure is not a person…or even a dog
Last week we went to the local shelter and got a dog, a little 16 month old fur ball of a Shih Tzu named Diamond. According to the shelter she was very laid back, great with kids, and already house broken. AWESOME!!! Seamed like the prefect dog for our family and we took her home with high expectations.
The first week everything went great. Diamond was everything the shelter said she was. Sweet personality, great on a leash on walks and wonderful with our five year old daughter who does not like hyper dogs. We joke that Diamond is really a self-propelled throw rug. My wife was going on and on about how this was the best dog she has ever had. Then we came home from church and all that came to and end. Our wonderful, awesome dog was apparently not as housebroken as we thought. My wife was crushed, hurt, disappointed. The kids were grossed out. And Diamond, she knew she had messed up… big time.
In retrospect we realized we put some unrealistic expectations on a 16 month old dog. Something had to give as we were adjusting to having a dog in the home and the dog had to adjust to being in a new environment. During the process there was going to be success and there was going to be failure.
The fact is that at times you are going to fail. You are not going to do everything right all the time, not that you do not try your best, but everyone fails at some point in their lives. Failure however will never stand in the way of success if we learn from it. It is important to remember that failure is an event… it is not a person (or in our case a very sweet dog). When she messed up we did not give up on her, pack her up and take her back to the shelter. We got out the Resolve carpet cleaner and cleaned up the mess. We then made some adjustments in our feeding and trip to the back yard schedule on Sundays so we do not put our little dog in a situation where she is set up to fail.
For all of us messing up is not a matter of “if” but “when”. And when the “when” happens we must learn from it.
When you fail that does not make you a failure, unless you give up and quit. Instead get out your “Resolve” and recommit to clean up your life. Talk to those who are supporting you, see what adjustments you need to make in your life so you do not put your self in a situation where you are set up to fail.
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