Fail!!

Do me a favor: Go out and fail today. Really. Pick something that you’ve never done or that you’ve never done well and do it. Fail at it. Again and again. I don’t care if it’s double-unders or forward rolls or snatches or even just trying to balance on one leg with your eyes closed for 10 full seconds. Heck, you could probably do that wherever you are right now. But do it for a minimum of 5 tries. Try and fail. Try and fail. Try and fail. Try and fail. Try and fail.

Failing is good for your head, and your soul. We often get trapped into this idea that people who succeed at something do so because they can do it correctly most of the time from the very start.

Wrong.

Successful people fail more than unsuccessful people. That’s right. Think about it. Successful people fail more. They work and they try and they mess things up, again and again.

So, what’s the difference between success and failure? Learning from your failures.

It’s the key to all of life — and to CrossFit. Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, is fond of saying things like “Fail, and fail quickly” and “F*** around. Play with it. See what happens.” Why? Because he knows that life — and success — is found when your a** is on the floor and your brain is furiously recording what went wrong, what went right, and what you should do differently next time. Success isn’t found in success. Success is discovered in failure. Success comes directly from learning.

So, go out today and fail. Please. Learn from it. Then you’re on your way to success.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)