“Success is never final and failure never fatal.”

Winston Churchill

So much of the time, we rest on the successes we’ve had in the past, or we are paralyzed by what we deem failures.  During training evolutions for high-threat diplomatic security, I’ve had the privilege to train some the world’s finest former spec ops operators.  Most of these folks have a resume filled with successes, and very few, if any failures.  There is a propensity to rest on the awesomeness of the resume.  I respect and admire these elite warriors for their accomplishments, skills, and courage.  No question about it, they have performed at the world-class level, but past performance, is just that, past performance.  Success is never final.

I have had clients who have achieved their goals, only to rest on that success, and then relax, fall into laziness, and eventually bad habits, undoing what they worked so hard to achieve.  On the flip side, I have had clients, who believe they have never achieved a goal, and are paralyzed by what they see as failure(s).  Either way, life is not static.  Yes, the work/rest cycle needs to be managed, but the truth is, the work of success is never over, and failure is only final, if you let it.

I’ve adopted a 24-hour rule, in my life.  It goes something like this: Succeed or fail, hit or miss the target, take no more than a day to enjoy it, or deal with it, then move on.  Easier said then done, but I am getting better at it.  Big successes or big let downs take a couple of days. I have noticed, the faster I process the emotions of a win or loss, the quicker I get back to world-class performance.

Don’t rest on your success, and don’t be paralyzed by what seems to be a failure. What ever happened last week, is just that, what happened last week.

Boo Yah!!