Is it possible to fail at life?

Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed

Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
Location
Central NY
Can a person fail at life? I suppose it is true if unable to sustain life, however, to determined a pass or failing grade one must establish a common goal of achievement. Oh however, life is made of many particles of material for greater diversity for achieving the brass ring of life’s carousel. The world turns round and round as life ahere’s to it’s own cycle, however, unlike the circle of life conception, birth, growth, rest and death, not instead life does not end on judgement day. For judgement day, one is told, a decisive sorting between the saved and saved dividing the occupants of heaven and hell is a ploy to create fear among the people and forever enslaved, these are the chosen ones.
Hell raisers and bear drinkers are freed by their intellect and misbelief.

Who if anyone fails life? The free spirited hell raiser or hung-up, Mr. Normal ambasoder to society. It is a known assuption you get what you want from life, there may be winners and losers at the game, but no one walks away empty-handed.
 

Well it all depends on the parameters. For example.. if I was born , raised and lived with Ultra successful people, high fliers . talented people such as Top inventors, Scientists, Brain surgeons, Astronauts,, , .. etc..I would personally feel I'd failed at MY life as it is now... .... if however i was born into drug or alcohol addicted surroundings, in a slum, where no-one worked for a living, and were uneducated.. I would feel that MY life as it is today is a complete and utter success...
 
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hollydolly said:
Well it all depends on the parameters. For example.. if I was born , raised and lived with Ultra successful people, high fliers . talented people such as Top inventors, Scientist, Brain surgeons, astronauts,, , .. etc..I would personally feel I'd failed at MY life as it is now... .... if however i was born into drug or alcohol addicted surroundings, in a slum, where no-one worked for a living, and were uneducated.. I would feel that MY life as it is today is a complete and utter success...
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Great observation, Holly. I'm thinking that there is no failure until we give up trying... kind of like my favorite Mary Ann Radmacher quote about courage: "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes, courage is that quiet voice at the end of the day that says, 'I'll try again tomorrow.'" Maybe failure in life only happens when we stop trying again "tomorrow." @hollydolly
 
What we have here is a failure to communicate. A person must recognize he/she is a failure before accepting he/she is a failure. In my opinion my dad was a terrible failure as a father and family man. However, as a preacher he may consider himself a success. My dad may totally overlook his actions as a father/family man and think very positive of himself in his chosen field.
I want my father to know how I see him by disregarding his achievements as a pastor.

My point is people are complicated some good and others???
 
Yes, it's possible to fail at life. If I were to wake up on death row with 24 hours to live, I'd likely think I'd failed at this earthly game of musical chairs.

One has to decide what is important to them, and set their own achievement goals. You also need to know your limitations. For example, I acknowledge that I worked with two people in my life who weren't only much better at what they did than I was, but they were better than I'd ever be. And I knew it within a very short period of time. I knew, in their cases, that competing with them was a huge mistake, I'd never get to their level. But did I fail? Nah - they were simply more talented.

As a sentient species, our primary goal is survival, both personal and through procreation. That's it really. Then we layer our intellect on top, and our goals within that, and I guess can determine success or failure against whatever measure we come up with. I think it can be argued that simply waking up to a new day is success - not everyone does, and the alternative is final! That we can recognize our failures, and work on them, means it's not over until the rather large lady cackles.

We should be realistic though. I could choose to acquire language skills today, and succeed at it. I can't decide I want to be a professional football player, because frankly, I'd snap like a twig in my first tackle. One area where I've had disagreement on this forum is around children. I don't think having children, par se, is a successful outcome. Firstly, it depends on all the outcomes after that event (were Hitler's parents happy with the outcome?) Secondly, I see so many people acting as though their life is over once children come into the picture, that from that point on, all that matters are the kids. Yet for me, the individual is still in there, and dousing that flame is a pity.

Hey, no-one said it was going to be easy.
 
Paco Dennis said:
The word failure should be dropped when it means a person is disappointed in how their life turned out. It is entirely a subjective feeling that varies too widely in strength and meaning to be used. I can see it being used for mechanical /physics type situations. The person failure, is loaded with opinion. Way too much opinion. :)
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Good point. One person's failure is another's success.

In the end, I don't think there's much we can do about it. We open our eyes each morning, and life happens. Sure, we can do "bad things", and that's not to be encouraged, but you have to break "failure" down to its constituent parts.
 
One of my favorite quotes is "you have to know where someone started in order to know how far they came". Maybe succes or failure in life is something we should not judge in ourselves, or others.
 
I've read in a biography on Giacomo Puccini that he thought he had failed in life. He said something like "noboby will remember me and my music after my death". In my opinion he composed a music which moves me into the core of my heart. The number of his operas is small in comparison to Verdi, since he died too early, but all opera houses around the world play them.
The same with Vincent van Gogh. During his life only one of his paintings was sold. Now they are worth millions.
To mention a newer example: One of my teachers at the university, a professor of geography, was unhappy with his life and said that he should have studied archeology instead.
A lot of people are the harshest critics of themselves, but often they are wrong.
 
The following post contains a few generalizations, so please don't feel obligated to point out the exceptions you are aware of; I know they're out there. I realize that one size does not fit all, but generally speaking... It's often said that all men (meaning men and women) are created equal. I disagree with that. The truth is that some people are born with a skill set or attributes that make life easier for them. A quick example is intelligence. We don't get to pick our IQ, and, for the most part, someone born with a high IQ will likely outperform the person with a lower IQ. Another example is athletic prowess.
All the practice in the world will not allow me to play professional soccer or baseball. Professional athletes seem to have some sort of built-in advantage. Some are born extroverts and make friends with ease everywhere they go. Some are born introverts and prefer to live life more on the sidelines. It's been proven through much research that taller men are more successful than shorter men; attractive men and women have built-in advantages over the more plain-looking, pretty girls never struggle for company.
I think the key is to have a realistic view of your strong and weak points, as well as an accurate expectation of what you can achieve. However (I've mentioned this previously), I feel like I've done well with the tools I have and therefore don't feel like a failure. Although I often wish I'd been born with a better, more comprehensive set of tools.
 
Mr. Ed said:
When I am depressed I am my worst enemy.
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Some decades ago, as I was a young man, there were times I was depressed. Since I've been married I've had no time for depression anymore. I make clear that I don't use the word in it's clinical meaning. Fortunately I've never been depressed in this way.
 
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