Power Of Failure

The rope is turning like it's buried in quicksand.

She's folding in mid-air again, not really jumping, more opening and closing like a book. Her Nano's are catching the rope, preventing anything more than a few reps at a time. She fights, again, trying to coordinate her mind and body. One no rep after another. She tries anyway.

It looks more like a seizure in mid-air.

His wrists don't move as much as his everything else. He's trying to fly with a jump rope in his hands, struggling to make his arms and legs work like they're part of the same person. After a few misses, he tries my cue the way a toddler tries a swear word. The cable whips his legs. He tosses the rope across the room and gives-up.

One of these athletes will progress. One of them will not. And I'm not just talking about fitness. I'm talking about life.

Do you remember when you were young; how fast you learned something new? How you went from missing your mark to nailing your target in no time? Were you smarter then, or simply more willing to screw up?

"Failure shows us the way — by showing us what isn't the way," Ryan Holiday says in "The Obstacle is the Way."

Failure is a muscle we're all born with, and like any neglected muscle, it gets weaker when we refuse to train it. Right now, stop caring about who's watching. Don't worry about looking confused. Just move. Mess up. Then do it again. The only thing that makes you look foolish is refusing to try.