That sure sounds familiar to me, Melissa. Perceiving failure on my part because someone is sad or angry or hurt. In the long run that has led to a lot of shame and guilt and resentment.

Failing yourself is just as bad.

I like to see failure as having made a mistake and not learning from it. Which means the best definition I can come up with for success is taking chances and making mistakes and growing and learning.

There is no success in standing still and burying yourself for the sake of not hurting someone.

I'm learning... ;-)

yeah...I read the originial question and I couldn't really think of anything for failure...

To me I think people screw themselves by always thinking of things as success or failure...like they made the right decision and things worked out right...or they made the wrong decision and they failed. Then with new decisions that must be made they get frozen by a feeling that they have to make the right decision. That the *right* decision is somehow the key to the perfect outcome. But to me the key is to make the decision that is most aligned with who we are and what we need to the best of our ability...and then let things happen as they will. There will be things that don't go as planned or hoped...but that doesn't mean it was the wrong choice. It brought you the lessons you needed. I think we only make the "wrong" choice when you go against ourselves...but really those aren't wrong either because they bring the lessons to help us learn to not do that.

Success: Manifesting your visions

Failure: Manifesting your doubts