Failed Event Natural Cycles

One of the intentions of this blog is to help folks view failed events in their own context, remembering that there is no one correct definition or reaction to failure. Life is typically a set of moments, connected together to form trends or cycles. Seasonal, episodic, random, systematic, call them what you will, events come in packets. Including failed events. We may or may not know the reasons, and that may be up to each individual’s philosophy on life, religion, and purpose. However, , we can track these events and realize that they each have a life cycle. Hence, when we experience a positive event, there may be others that follow, or there may be a failed event. The most we can do is realize these possibilities, learn, cope, and embed the events in our life cycles. Keep in mind the endpoint serves us little, and although it might be seen as jargon these days, the power and joy, the living of life, is still in the journey.

A natural human tendency is the desire to favor the successful events in our lives, even though if we reflect on the times in our life, we might find that some of the most enjoyable times, the meaningful times, centered around the failed events of our own and others whom we care for and support. It may seem that we are trying to push the agenda of a failed event. As the title of this book indicates – is there a NEED for failure? The word need represents a very powerful human phenomenon, and historically we think of the word in terms of basic needs for food and water, expanded to clean water, a safe place to raise children and even human freedom and dignity, concern, respect, care, and other human needs. We each have beliefs about what we need … to exist… to be reproduce… to sustain our lifestyles … to be happy… or possibly to aspire to higher attributes. If people have adopted the attitude as stated above using the example of Walmart, then when they say to a friend, “I NEED to go to the store and buy hair coloring this weekend”, maybe they will rethink whether this is a need or a desire. If we NEED to go to the store every other day for objects other than the staples of food (no, that does not include ice cream), then wouldn’t it seem natural and even a priority that we NEED to fail? Given the ideas, examples and connections described in this book and the ways an individual’s mental, spiritual, financial, and physical health and well-being can be affected by a failed event, would failing in some of our daily activities not constitute a NEED more than the need for a dedicated specialized plastic stick to peel my orange, because my fingernails are too long and fragile since I had them manicured this morning?

Let’s think beyond what is need and for whom should it be applied. Maybe need is completely contextual and dynamic, in that once a need is satiated, another need will naturally follow. This continuation of needs is another aspect of the natural cycle. As advanced organisms, do we continue to add needs as needs are fulfilled? Initially, our needs were simple and non-technologically based. As we advanced in civilization, one of our first advancements was fire which we used to cook our food instead of eating raw plants and vegetables. Now another human advancement, science, has shown that cooking vegetables actually depletes the food’s source of nutrition. Can we now return to a time when we did not use heat to modify our foods? With the industrial revolution came progresses in transportation, packaging, processing. Now we can have more, easier, efficiently from thousands of miles away from where food is grown, anytime we want for the right price. Is this a need? Some might say that the natural cycle has been interrupted as historically we have eaten foods available to us locally and our bodies could process the local diet. Bringing in products from other areas, adding chemicals for transport and to increase shelf life, may have benefited our efficiency and decreased the energy we expend to search for and gather food sources, but what has agribusiness done to our health? The number of cancer cases has grown dramatically. Could the global disruption of the food web be a part of that trend and where does failure fit with that cycle?

The objective of this blog is not to answer any of these common issues that we struggle with, but to share how integrated the concept of failed events is to everything. We make choices, as individuals and as a society governed and regulated by individuals. Organizations promote their philosophies on the environment, politics, hunger, humanity. We question and encourage others to question the role of failed events in these global perspectives and initiatives. Just as important, we hope you will question the concept of ‘need’. We focus on this term to help us communicate and emphasize an important point. However, if we could develop new word that actually and only represents a true, absolute need in our lives, what would each of us classify as a need? Would it be something we could not do without, or would not want to do without? We guess the need lists will include oxygen, water, food, love, safety – most of the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy. But what needs will make the second cut? What are the things that we can live without, but would rather not? What distinctively determines our happiness, our pursuit of a particular quality of life? We challenge you to find a quiet moment soon, get into your comfortable space and jot down a few of these most important items. No need to do anything formal, the back of a napkin, a Post-It note, anything will do. More importantly, keep the list simple and honest, truly writing down the things in life that you care for most. As we round the corner and finish up this adventure for now, we encourage you to use your “napkin list” as a bookmark and reflect upon it frequently. Rich learning and usable philosophies frequently occur in this way, as we incorporate new knowledge into our pre-existing ideas or schema. Writing is very powerful, and just as powerful is a ‘self-talk’, which is literally talking to yourself. It may seem like you are a bit out of it to others. But these days, when talking on the small earpiece cell phones, folks appear to be talking to themselves, so observers might think you are simply high-tech. Hearing yourself speak reinforces your message, and it provides an opportunity to hear potential misconceptions – yes, another opportunity for a failed event!