I’ve learned something so important about how we run our race. When we hit an obstacle, become discouraged, or have people leave who’ve supported us or struggle financially, physically or emotionally, there is something we can do. It’s adjust! Adjust your tack, strategy, and the way you move.
The actual definition of adjusting is to: alter or move (something) slightly to achieve the desired fit, appearance, or result. Yet unfortunately, far too often, we don’t adjust when faced with a crisis or difficulty. We usually either throw up our hands and give up or dig in our heels and hope that with some extra effort in our existing strategy, it will work.
Sometimes digging in and perseverance is the right thing to do, but if we have tried our very best at something and still aren’t getting the desired results or seeing God’s breakthrough, wisdom would say, adjust strategy and make a different move.
Any adjusting means assessing our life, being honest about where we are positioned, how we feel, and what we think, and then choosing to seek God. It also means being humble enough to admit when our plan isn’t working.
However, a plan not working does not mean we have failed if we’re prepared to go back to the “drawing board” or get another plan to move forward with.
Many call this mindset failing forward because failing forward is about leveraging your mistakes, making a realistic assessment of risks, and the ability to live with the downside and experiment with new approaches.
Before their breakthrough, many of the world’s most successful people experienced what many would define as “failure”. But where others would have given up, they learned to adjust and to fail forward. Edward Hubbard said, “there is no failure except in no longer trying“.
James Dyson failed forward 5,126 times in his prototype before creating the best-selling bagless vacuum cleaner, leading to a net worth of $4.5 billion.
Thomas Edison learned to adjust and fail forward even though his teachers told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He held more than 1,000 patents, including the phonograph and electric lamp.
Walt Disney was told he lacked imagination and had no good ideas by his former newspaper editor. He went on to create a cultural icon bearing his name.
Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job as a TV anchor. She is now a billionaire and the owner of her TV channel. She says, “There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.”
Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four years old, couldn’t read until he was seven and was thought to be mentally handicapped. He went on to win the Nobel Prize and altered the world’s understanding of physics.
Today, if you realise that your initial plan is not working in a particular area of your life, and you feel like giving up, your dream and idea look like a failure; I encourage you to seek God again for a perhaps, adjusted plan and strategy to move forward. Determine that you are going to “Fail Forward”.
That may mean you have to swallow your pride, alter some of your circumstances, deal with any issues and change some things up, but that’s okay.
Don’t let having to be right or needing to adjust a plan stop you from achieving God’s best for your life and walking in your destiny. Set your focus ahead, pray, listen to wise counsel, be informed about what you are determining to do, study up on others’ success and determine to adjust if need be so you can move forward.
“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)
“Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them because it is the Lord your God who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:6,8)
Prayer: Lord, I thank you for giving me the strength to keep on running into all you have for me. Please give me the wisdom to know when and where I may have to adjust and change my strategy and the courage to move forward. In Jesus name Amen.
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