This is always danger in letting success go to your head or worse, letting failure go to your heart.
Success is a great thing and can change and or improve many areas of your life. However, it is important to always “keep a lid” on it. We all know and have met people who want everyone around them to know all the details about everything they are doing and have accomplished and how great they are. There are also many people that want to replay for you, the conversation about some success they had. In general, this turns people off.
There is a level of class and elegance in keeping certain things to yourself. Success is certainly one of those areas you don’t want to talk about it to just anyone. Share it with those closest to you but remain humble. A braggart is probably the least liked type of person.
As important as it is to not let success go to your head it is more important to not let failure go to your heart. The heart is the keeper of all things important. The bible says that “out of the heart, the mouth speaks.” It also says that “out of the heart flows the issues of life.”
Failure can be devastating if you let it find a resting place in your heart. It will dissolve your boldness, take away your resolve and possibly cripple your hope. It could change the course of your life in a way God never intended.
Everyone fails. That’s right, everyone you have every known or read about has had to deal with failure from time to time. It is how you deal with it that defines if it holds you back or strengthens your resolve for the future. Let failure have its perfect place which is to teach and instruct but stop it there. Learn from failure but don’t let it lead you. Learn to forgive yourself. Self-forgiveness could be one of the most important aspects of your life you could ever learn.
Self-esteem is like an egg. It is fragile whether we want to admit it or not. Every time you do something good it is like you add a layer of lacquer to the egg and every time you do something you know you shouldn’t, it is like you remove a layer. If you add enough layers to the egg (your self-esteem) it is not as fragile and can handle changes better. If it is fragile, a little failure could derail your self-esteem.
Learn to forgive in life. Keep your successes to yourself and when you do fail (and you will) be careful to not let that failure lodge in your heart. KT