Taking chances.

Imagine how boring it would be if we never took chances. If we never tried new things, never felt the thrill of the unknown, or the sheer pleasure of beating the odds. To place yourself in a situation that seems to be uncomfortable, but over all helps to mature you as a person. I remember watching an old martial arts movie, where the hero lost, he failed, and he was beaten, broken and busted. His teacher approached him with a warm smile. The hero was confused as he stood there stripped bare, experiencing pain and defeat. The instructor went on to explain “one victory is one lesson; one defeat is a thousand lessons learned. Now you are probably asking yourself what this means, or as some of you have already figured out, it’s one of the best lessons in life. After making the breakthrough of creating the light bulb, Thomas Edison was being interviewed by a reporter, at one point the reporter asked why it took him so many times to make the light bulb, how did it feel to fail so much. Edison looked at him and said that he did not fail, he just learned many ways how not to make a light bulb. If we succeeded at all things, we never learn, we remain in a constant state of being. We become comfortable, complacent in our lot in life. Many successful people have made many mistakes, rarely does beginners luck play into the situation. The emotions elicited by defeat and mistake are sometimes painful and powerful. You feel as though the world has ended, that trying is worthless, not worth the pain or trouble. In “Batman begins”, Bruce Wayne’s father teaches his son a valuable lesson, he asks him “why do we fall?” Then answers so we can pick ourselves back up again. How often have we given up because the falling is too hard, the landing to devastating, and that it is just more comfortable to just do nothing. It is human nature to not want to experience emotional pain, yet it is part of what makes us, teaches us valuable lessons, and as you will see, in life all things have a reason for being.