Success vs. Failure

I was reading an interesting article about child birth yesterday (Random? Maybe!). The author is a woman who had a traumatizing first child birth experience. Now pregnant with her second, she is determined to have a different experience. The article tries to discern whether or not women can control labor and how our personalities can define the "success" (e.g. using a doula and giving birth at home, or delivering naturally) or "failure" (having a C-section, or for some, giving birth in a hospital) of child birth. While reading, I found myself stuck on a sentence toward the end of the article:

"Perhaps part of the problem is that our generation of women is so ambitious, so driven, that we don't know how to do anything without quantifying it as a success or a failure."

While I can't speak to the correlation between this statement and child birth, I can say that outside the context of this article, I find the statement to be accurate. Very rarely do I say, "No matter what happens, it's going to be fine." I'm a perfectionist. A type-A. A do-er. A gal who is afraid of (dare I say it) failure. This article prompts me to question: What is the real definition of success? Failure? It's likely different for each person, as we all have different opinions of what is sufficient/acceptable and what is not. How do we change the mindset that we can do something and not have to deem our actions as successful or unsucessful. We don't have to categorize ourselves as failures if one thing goes out of line. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer or a suggestion for how to change. This whole thought process is a huge struggle for me.

I guess my only suggestion is to have a support system of people who remind you that in most instances, it really doesn't matter all that much (Note: In some instances, it may matter.). I might be stubborn and resistant to listen at first, but it's something I need to drill into my head. I can continue to be me (ambitious, driven, hard-working, organized) without having to quantify everything I do as a success or a failure.

I'm going to be beginning an adventure soon and have already wondered, "What if I fail? What if I can't do it?" The simple sentence above, placed in an article completely unrelated to my adventure, reminded me that I need to readjust my mindset. It's going to be OK. An experience might be difficult, but difficulty doesn't equal failure... just as ease doesn't equal success.

[Image: PostSecret]