The anatomy of Failure: Raphael

My CV reads "Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with equal amount of enthusiasm." This was said by Winston Churchill a flawed, war mongering leader but one who shepherded Great Britain through the most destructive war of the Modern Era, if it were not for his never give a shit attitude, Britain would have crumbled.
This is what i think, motivation when only for oneself, is brittle and transient (obviously my opinion) but the motivation that comes from a task that is bigger than any one person, that several people depend on it, that motivation is lasting, a soldier's life and his will to fight erodes slowly, and all the nationalistic pride is left on the backburner, but the fire to fight comes from those who are fighting next to him, the soldier fights for his brother, who would gladly take a bullet to spare his life, and he knows that if the time comes he would do the same, this is the passion and motivation that is lasting, personal gain and success, impetus like those rarely last.

But i'm here to talk about the anatomy of failure, i have seen that when you want something bad enough you almost never get it. The more desperately you need something to happen it never does, the case goes with me too, whenever i have needed something to happen something to go my way, at the very crux, the ultimate moment, my luck absolutely deserts me.

Failure usually starts with a task or an aim, lets say to scale a mountain in a day. The first enemy of success is the time allotted in preparation of the task, too much and you don't peak, too little and there is no preparation. Procrastination becomes a favorite pass time, and lethargy comes in to claim you. So firm the grasp of these two is that most don't go on to the next stage of failure, the jittery uneasiness, this happens in the case that one overcomes the lethargy, but this stage is advanced because the symptoms of failure start to settle in and start taking a toll on the mind and body. As time passes this unease turns into panic, and more than the actual act of preparation, the lack of preparation dominates the mind, which then turns the mind to find solace in the fantasies of escape, it numbs the pain, and gives a happy feeling, exactly like a drug would. But this drug is something that has withdrawal symptoms worse than heroin, you are trapped by your own mind in your own creation, if that isn't scary then i don't know what is.

The event is upon you, if you haven't lost your sanity to the panic or your mind to the illusion, there comes the last stage of failure, the fearless bravado, "jo aayegi dekhi jaayegi" and that my friends is an assurance so weak, that one cannot fool others leave alone oneself. You start to climb the mountain, poor conditioning eliminates your stamina halfway up, can't go down, can't go up, you try to get some help, but you can't, you try to reach a safe spot, but you can't, hanging in the middle of nowhere, you try to grasp one last foothold, your arms exhausted give way, you fall, break both your legs and snap your spine, dopamine has flooded your system, you don't feel the pain let alone anything else, can't move, and in the distance you see two glowing eyes death comes for you my friend...

ps: to fail is written in stone, to succeed, now that you have to write with your blood on the stone of your failure...

Inspired by Varun Chowdhary