Anyone ever see those Olympic gymnasts who do a series of maneuvers that I can’t fathom completing in a thousand lifetimes, then all of a sudden wipe out in a concerning fashion? Somehow even at the end of what seems like a disastrous fall, they pick themselves up, and raise their arms above their head in completion as if they just landed the perfect routine. Its mesmerizing to watch. These people know how to move on from failing; probably better that most of us.

This morning was a struggle to get through the workout. 45 minutes spinning the pedals on the bike trainer felt like an eternity. I was tired, unmotivated, and wanting nothing more than to crawl back into bed. My legs are sore, and I probably only got about 4 hours of good quality sleep. Some days are just going to start off like this. The lack of morning motivation coupled with the fact that the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet got me thinking about days like today. What are the indicators that, despite a molasses-like start to the day, prove we’re making progress?

There is an old Windows XP error window that has made its rounds on the internet that simply says “Task failed successfully”. It got me thinking about the juxtaposition of those two words consecutively in the same sentence. I would love to meet the developer that coded that error message. I think he was on to something. Often in IT we see sometimes see failed tasks as a good thing. They are indicators of adjustments that we need to make in the environment. A database backup for example may fail intentionally if the size of that backup has exceeded a safety net threshold set by admin to avoid filling up space.

Yesterday’s post was all about reaching a failure set. The point in which you can no longer do any more reps of a given exercise. I think when we encounter days like today where our motivation is low and our drive feels like the beating our fists on the dashboard to cold start a car, we have a simple choice to make. We can hit snooze on the alarm and crawl back into slumber, or stumble our way into a morning workout we aren’t looking forward to.

I realize I talk about failure a lot. Its important that we become so familiar with, and comfortable with the idea of failure, that our next move after failure is just like the gymnast who has just defied the laws of gravity by appearing to have fallen down 10 flights of stairs on a flat surface and still stood up in front of the judges with their head held high. There is a saying in the DevOps culture: “Fail fast, and fail often.” Its a mantra of sorts that drives this culture forward leaps and bounds because they are simply not afraid to fail. Failing is just another comment in the commit message when they upload their code to source control.

I’m no stranger to failure. I’ve started and stopped a thousand health kicks over the past years. Most of them ending in a triumphant low-point drowning in a bucket of tacos and beer. Every time I look back and say “I’ll do this differently next time.” Its probably a familiar sentiment for many of you too. In retrospect most of those downward spirals all started with a single day. A single gap in the streak of going to the gym, a single cheat meal that turned into dozens more, a single workout that made you think there isn’t a point in continuing.

My challenge to you: Fail forward. Take that single failure event and follow it by saying “I’ll try just one more time.” Give your self the benefit of a second chance, each time you reach a day like this. One more is all it really takes to dust yourself off, raise your hands above your head, and scream at the top of your lungs “TASK FAILED SUCESSFULLY!”

Happy Friday.