Failure, Success & The In-Between

Failure - Lack of success.

Success - The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Win - To be successful or victorious.

Lose - To fail to win, gain, or obtain.

Happiness, contentment, growth, progress, and quality of life live inside a region that braces the polarities commonly known as both success and failure or winning and losing. This region is a philosophical ideology remaining undefined by our vocabulary lexicon, at present.

There are two commonly held methods for evaluating failure. The first is to consider that when a reward, mission, or accomplishment is sought, anything other than absolute completion of the reward, mission, or accomplishment is viewed as a failure. That is, there are only two states of being, the state of success and the state of failure. The second is to consider that there are three states, (1) the state of success, (2) the state of failure, (3) proposed; that illusively undefined state of the in-between failure and success. This state of the in-between is not a success in that the reward, mission, or accomplishment has not been satisfied, but it is equally not a failure for the participant is in a much greater position than they were prior to setting out for the reward, mission, or accomplishment. This paradigm presupposes that the only true failure is not trying at all.

How one views the in-between state of success and failure will reflect in how they view and forthwith process life, make choices, and execute decisions. How one views and compartmentalizes the in-between of success and failure translates into one’s personal well-being, which transmutes directly and indirectly into one’s surroundings, their world. For those who believe that only success or failure is an option, there is absolutely no opportunity for growth. Through that linear view, one either succeeds/wins, in which case no further effort is accepted, or one fails/loses, where, once again, no further effort is accepted. For those believers of the vibrant in-between, there is much opportunity revealing itself everywhere.

?The near miss or almost accomplishment is not a failure but an opportunity to create a more favorable result.

There are no words nor a single word in the English language to describe the in-between of success and failure or the in-between of winning and losing.

As the great Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways which won’t work.”