I was reading in my devotional today about giraffes.

After giving birth and helping her baby to stand on its own wobbly legs for the first time, the mother giraffe immediately knocks the newborn giraffe down. The baby gets back up and the mother promptly knocks the newborn babe back over. This is repeated over and over until the baby isn't quite so easily pushed around anymore. Where is motherly love and devotion when it comes to giraffes? It's there in spades.

Wild giraffes are born into a dangerous and unforgiving world. While I doubt any newborn giraffe is getting a warm and fuzzy feeling from having her mom repeatedly shove her around, she'll be better off for it as she lives her daily life in a world of unexpected and sometimes life threatening challenges. I learned a lot today about giraffes and giving up, aka; Failure.

How do we handle failure? How do I handle failure?

Do I get back up like the baby giraffe? Again, and again and again if necessary?
Do I wallow in my self-pity and blame someone else for my circumstances?
Do I give up totally and accept my fate?
Do I stay down where it is “safe”?
Or do I dust myself off, get back up and learn from my failures?

Failure. That's a tough word. No one likes to fail.
I think women are especially tough on themselves when it comes to perceived failure in the area of food and weight control. I know I am very tough on myself.

It seems like I'm never losing fast enough or as much as I want to lose and I'm always beating myself up, especially when I gain back that which was so hard fought to shed in the first place.

So I try to make it sound more pleasant, less hurtful or painful with phrases like:
I've goofed up, slipped, fell off the wagon, backslid, missed the mark, lost control, gone astray, or fallen through.

Why don't I call a failure a failure, but redefine what that means to me?

Why not look at failure as a chance to learn from my mistakes so that I can grow, improve, expand and succeed?

Why does failure chip away at my self-esteem so that I feel like giving up totally, thinking I'll never have success in losing and/or controlling my weight?

So I've gone three steps forward and then two steps back in my journey to shed some pounds.

Why should I listen to the negative voice playing inside my head telling me that I've failed again? It's time to reprogram that voice so that when I go three steps forward and two steps back I realize I'm still one step ahead.
It's time to be proud of the fact that I actually have gone those two extra steps ahead. And even though the victory was temporary at least I know I can do it again with the determination to hold onto my success next time around.

It's time to look failure in the eye and not be afraid anymore. I'm ready to embrace my failure as a stepping-stone to my success, keeping in mind the words of Henry Ford:

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

Here's to new beginnings,

KAS