The Razor-thin Difference between Failure and Success | VictorSchueller.com

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“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” ~Joyce Brothers

To say the years that I attended chiropractic school were some of the most difficult years of my life is an understatement.  I didn’t get off to a good start there.  I was battling the effects of depression, my grades were suffering, and my life seemed to consist of varying levels of suffering.  Good times were rare, to put it bluntly.

I was in serious danger of seeing my goal of becoming a chiropractor end, because academically I wasn’t cutting it.  I remember my first exam at school was a wake-up call for me.  It might as well have been written in a foreign language, because I didn’t understand most of the questions (which makes it hard to come up with the right answer).  My study skills were woefully inept, and I didn’t know what to do to improve my grades or my study habits.  I felt lost and alone.

I ended up ultimately failing one of my early trimesters.  The way that our curriculum was set up, if you got less than a “C” in one “module,” which was a course of study, like “the spine,” for example, then you “failed” that module.  If you failed one module, you had to re-take the entire trimester, because each trimester had several modules that followed in sequence.  I passed the other module in that semester, so I just had to re-do one module, but I found myself now one semester behind, thus scheduled to graduate four months later (if I were to make it that far) than originally planned.

I felt like a colossal failure.  A failure to myself; a failure to my future wife; a failure to everyone who knew I was in chiorpractic school. After all, if I failed, everybody would know that I failed.  Not only that — I would have to figure out what else I was going to do.  I found myself at a crossroads, and I wasn’t sure if I should just continue to try to convince myself that I was cut out to be a chiropractor or if I should just throw in the towel and give up while I was ahead.

There was a long walking path near the apartment in which I resided, and I decided to take a long walk and contemplate what and where I was at that time, and what my future held for me.  Ultimately, my intent was to come to some sort of conclusion by the end of the walk as far as what I was going to do — was I going to keep trying, or was I going to give up and try something else?

I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I was opening up my mind and seeking the wisdom of my intuition.  I was seeking an answer from “above.”  It didn’t come through very strongly, but I did feel a significant feeling of a self-induced “pressure” to maintain my current course.  I just couldn’t see how giving up was going to be the right solution to this problem.  I just couldn’t see myself giving up so easily.  I knew I had it in me — I just had to find it…Somewhere…

Because I only had to take one module the next trimester, I had time to do some substitute teaching at the local school district, and re-organize my priorities.  My focus was on succeeding and improving my efforts, which, to be honest, had much room for improvement. Upon my return to school, I successfully completed the module I had failed before.  Soon after, I received a much stronger message that I needed to change my lifestyle and physical fitness, and I did that too.  From there, the rest is history…I dramatically improved my grades, dramatically improved my outlook on life, and I became a competent and successful student and intern and ultimately a Doctor of Chiropractic!

In retrospect, as I reflect back on those early years of chiropractic school, I realize now that I was living out a belief system handed to me by my family and those who surrounded me.  In short, I didn’t expect that much of myself.  To be honest, I wasn’t surprised that I was struggling — I sort of expected it!  I was still reeling emotionally from my mom’s death years before, and I guess that I just assumed that I was supposed to be depressed and suffering, thus I struggled and suffered as a result!

It wasn’t until I took that walk, and decided that failure was not an option for me, that it started to turn around for me.  I wish I would have known then what I know now, because I could have saved myself a lot of suffering and struggling back then!  I realize now that the shift in concentration — that shift in focus — made all the difference in my outlook and ultimate success.

I spent all my time focusing on what I didn’t want to happen — I didn’t want to suffer; I didn’t want to fail; I didn’t want to struggle.  Yet, little did I realize that by focusing on those, I was actually giving them energy and allowing them to become larger and become real!  After taking that walk, I began to focus on succeeding, working harder, putting more effort in, finding enjoyment in my studies, and getting better grades.  Albeit inefficient at the time, I was now giving energy to what I intended to have happen!  I was allowing my success to become reality!

Sometimes we don’t notice the subtle difference between wanting not to fail and wanting to succeed.  Little do we know that focusing on what we don’t want actually gives energy and life to the things we are trying to prevent from happening.

By making that little shift, and focusing on what it is we actually want, we can provide tremendous energy and life to the dreams and goals we possess inside.  By making that little shift, we can realize our true potential, and become the person we ultimately know we are destined to be!

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