Accepting Failure

Accepting Failure

I’m not one to encourage endless doomscrolling, take one look at your “screen time” stats on your phone and you may be shocked. But every once in a while, a post stops me in my tracks during a late night rabbit hole. The other day, I saw one that said, “The gym is the only place we openly accept failure.” That spoke to me, so I’m going to expand on some thoughts about it. 

I believe that most of us fear failure. Failure in life, at work, in relationships or on a test. These can be devastating and seen as a bad thing, something to avoid. But in the gym, we CHASE it. We purposefully push ourselves to the edge of failure and sometimes over the edge, because that’s where growth happens. As a coach, I ask my clients to fail all the time and every time they do, it’s followed by me with the words “great set” or “lucky you, we have 2 more sets of that”. So, I want you to rethink failure not as something to be feared, but as a signpost on the road to strength and progress.

Think about a time you didn’t get that job you applied for. At first, it felt like a huge setback, but maybe it pushed you to take a new skill or to explore a different path. Or maybe you bombed a test in school, and that failure forced you to study differently, and in the end, you mastered the subject. These moments remind us that failure is a detour, not a dead end. In the gym, we practice this same philosophy and with each lift that we fail, each rep we miss, it’s just another sign we’re getting closer to something bigger. I often joke with clients that getting stronger is tough because that means things just get harder and heavier. 

As you all continue to push forward in life, let's keep this gym lesson in the back of our minds. The gym teaches us that failure is a good thing, and approaching life like that can definitely have its benefits.

Much love, 

Revamp HQ team