Fall Down 7 Times, Stand Up 8

When failure fuels motivation

Here’s a quote I’ve borrowed and amended slightly from Shel Silverstein, a poet, author and songwriter:

Listen to the mustn'ts. Listen to the don'ts.

Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.

Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...

Anything can happen. Anything can be.

It would make sense, I think, to focus on those last two sentences: “Anything can happen. Anything can be.” But I would suggest taking Shel’s words at exactly where they are in his writing. LISTEN to the MUSTN’TS. LISTEN to the DON’TS. The shouldn’t, the impossibles, the never haves.

Being told I can’t do something lights a spark in me. Being told I am bad at something throws fuel on that fire. I’ve written and spoken about that here and here.

As much as I hate absolutes, here is a truth: you are going to fail at things many times over. I would imagine I fail at something every single day. But that has always been an electrical charge for me. A current that signals to try again and perhaps try harder. And it feels good. Science used to think dopamine was the neurotransmitter of pleasure. But we now know it is the neurotransmitter of motivation.

Here’s an example of why it can feel good to fail, then. Ancient homo sapien finds a strawberry patch and eats the glucose intense and sweet berries. They taste good because we needed to store energy as dense calories back then. Food was scarce. This releases dopamine motivating us to find more strawberry bushes.

But what if the next day you couldn’t find another patch? More dopamine will be released! You will become more motivated to keep seeking.

So bringing it all home for me, or you. What if I want to go run a 5k in 18 minutes? What if you want to score your highest LSAT to date? Get a A+ on a test? If any of us fails at any of these things — bring it on next time! There will be more runs, more tests. You get multiple LSAT takes. And so it goes for all of us. Almost every failure is just a moment in time. Almost every failures gets a redo.

The literature of great success stories that began in failure is never ending. I’ll give but one, that of Abraham Lincoln. But just remember the Japanese saying that forms the title of this post.

Fall down 7 times, Stand up 8.

Abraham Lincoln

Failed in business at age 21.

Was defeated in a legislative race at age 22.

Failed again in business at age 24.

Overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26.

Had a nervous breakdown at age 27.

Lost a congressional race at age 34.

Lost a congressional race at age 36.

Lost a senatorial race at age 45.

Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47.

Lost a senatorial race at age 47.

Was elected PRESIDENT of the United States at age 52!