Serious personal progress involves quite a bit of getting back up again from being knocked down.

In general, to progress at anything it is essential that we challenge ourselves beyond our current capabilities. We need to repeatedly stretch our skills to the point of failure and then repeat. This repetition following failure can be hard going, but it is determination which separates the expert from the novice.

Knowing this, we should try to make progress when we are mentally and physically ready for the, sometime gruelling, hurt and burn of repetition until failure. Embarking on the challenge without the stamina and emotional stability to repeatedly fail is pointless. It will manifested itself in frustration, anger or even self-abasement.

If we are prepared to fall on our faces we can achieve great things. We can develop the skills to make our life and our contributions remarkable. The knowledge that every small failure is the road to success, the path to improvement, the point of life, can help us prepare for the trials ahead.

It is essential that we identify the two specific types of failure. The first is where the failure itself is part of the growth. Training muscles requires consistent repetition of the same movements to build mass and to develop muscle memory. For this type of failure we know that we only have to keep repeating what we are doing.

The second type is where we have taken the wrong approach, made the wrong decision. For this type of failure we must understand our error and then try something new – continuing to do the same thing will only lead to more failure and frustration.

Sometimes it can be difficult to identify the two different types of failure, but if we keep our minds open it gets easier each time we try.

To move forward is to risk failure but to stand still is failure in itself. Life is about falling on our faces. If we can learn to enjoy that then we real can make great progress.