Failure is an interesting issue to write about and for some it is almost impossible. In sports sometimes you hear the phrase, “failure is not an option” used. I have learned that failure is indeed an option. In fact, failure is a constant.

We are all going to fail, over and over again. It is about what we take away from that failure that matters. What did we learn? Did we take personal responsibility for it? How have we grown from that failure?

I have had a lot of failures in my life. From not getting into the college I wanted to go to all the way to relationships not working out. Just yesterday I have a few failures I could mention. But I don’t want to spend time today on any specific failure.

The biggest failure in my life is when I have failed to act.

Action is a scary thing for people and that’s why so many choose to talk about what they are going to do or what they should have done rather than actually DOING something. I believe people are so afraid of failing sometimes that they fail to act.

I have been guilty of this many times in my life. The times I should have sought forgiveness for harming someone I care about. Or when I told so many people that I wanted to get healthy, get back in shape, but then I never did anything about it. Oh and my favorite, those times I told people I would do something for them and broke my promise.

Those are all examples (and there are so many more) of situations in my life where I have failed to take action. Maybe it was because of fear, worry, doubt, or just indecision. Or maybe I was suffering from negative thinking. The late, great Zig Ziglar called all that “stinkin thinkin.” We all should certainly work to get “stinkin thinkin” out of our lives.

The actual reasons for my lack of action don’t even matter because every single time I don’t act it is a failure. I have learned that I can do the most good when I take action. There is no point in setting goals if I don’t act on them. Setting action steps or mini-goals is just as important as setting the goals.

When in your life have you failed to take action? How did that lack of action affect you and the people close to you? How can you avoid this major failure and become a person of action? That is a goal that I set every year. I keep setting it and working towards it. Every year I get a little bit better.

My challenge to you is to work to become a person of action and never again fail to ACT in your life. It is the only failure that shouldn’t be an option.