Failure.

It’s not how many times you fall down. It’s how many times you get back up.

I’m not the smartest guy. Not the most handsome (most days). Not the strongest. Not the most water-resistant. But, overall, I consider myself a fairly successful guy. Recently, though, I faced quite the bout with failure.

It happened sometime between January 14th and January 16th. I honestly can’t tell you when exactly, but what I can tell you is that it has taught me quite the lesson.

You hear it from preachers and self-help gurus all the time - You’re going to slip up. You’re going to experience failure. Life may be a box of chocolates, but someday, you’re going to bite into one and it’s going to taste a lot like Vegemite. I hear you, Reverend, but your words, while designed to build me up, feel more like they’re rubbing my face in it.

I don’t want this to be depressing. So let me turn this around for you. It’s true. You will fail. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re at rock bottom, but remember: you could always find one of those drills like Bruce Willis used in Armageddon and get lower. But once you fall to the bottom of that mine you just drilled from rock bottom, rise up. Shake the lava off your feet and walk around your abyss with your head held high. Things will turn around for you. After all, things are looking up. Well, I guess from the abyss, you’re looking up.

Since blogging is about sharing your personal experiences, I’ll pay my dues. From my experience, yes, maybe I felt like crying a little bit when I realized what happened. How could I let something so small turn into such a heroic failure? So much hard work and dedication put in, only to let one slip up ruin the whole thing. Life’s not fair. Simba might end up with Nala, but who’s to say that one day he might not get trampled by a herd of wildebeests dispatched by his scrawny brother with incredibly long elbow hair?

We all face failures. If you haven’t, you will. I did. Like High School Musical taught us, we’re all in this together. Maybe this post will allow me to be your Bill Withers.

We may not all be the same, but you put your pants on one leg at a time, just like I do. Just like I have done most every day since January 14th, 15th or 16th. You see, for the first time in a long time, I made a New Year’s Resolution: When I wear pants, I’m not going to put them on one leg at a time. I couldn’t have been more successful for the first two weeks. Then I went on a weekend ski trip (yes, it was the same trip I took last year). One of those three mornings, I climbed out of my tiny bunk bed and put my pants on one leg at a time, crushing my hopes and dreams. Sad thing is, I didn't even realize it until I got back. But as soon as I was back in my own house ready to get dressed it hit me like a Mythbusters' cannonball: oops.

Not all is lost. Every once in a while, when the sun peeks through the curtains, lighting up the silence of the morning, I’ll take a seat on the bed, take a deep breath of warm air, and slide my pants on two legs at a time for nostalgia’s sake. Because, after all, it’s not how many times you fall, it’s how many times you pull your pants up.