Failure is a necessity.
It is not easy on the heart, the mind, the body.
It is not easy to accept, and at times it is not easy to explain.
But failure is necessary.
Without it life would grow stale. Our everyday actions would become a monotonous mess of boring and mundane.
We are not androids. Rather, we are imperfect humans, overly qualified to fail at any given task.
Even the best in the world make mistakes. Novak Djokovic, the No. 2 tennis player in the world by ranking – though arguably the best by pure talent – had won 28 matches in a row on the world tour.
He had 25 consecutive wins in the Australian Open, where he has taken home the title each of the last three years.
He had 14 straight Grand Slam finals – the second-longest streak, ever – and 14 wins against his last opponent, Stanislas Wawrinka.
Then Djokovic hit a forehand wide on Tuesday. On match point. Game over.
Never mind the last 5 hours and 22 minutes of a grueling grudge match from a year ago.
Never mind the match was in a tie-breaker to win the tie-breaking fifth set to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.
All that mattered was that shot, because it meant the giant had finally fallen.
Djokovic was left standing in shock on a court that he all but owned for the past three years. His own mistake ended his reign.
After constantly feeding himself with worldwide success, he failed on the very court where he played as a goliath.
Because even the best need failure. Even the best are not perfect.
Failure may come on a live, global broadcast of one of the biggest international sporting events in the world.
Or it may come early in the morning when I realize I forgot to turn my headlights off.
Failure adapts to the person. It can come anywhere, anytime.
Failure is ever-changing, always finding a way back into our lives when we think we have shut it out.
But failure is success. At least, it can be.
More than showing us what we did wrong, our mistakes prove to us we can be right, prove we can be better.
I used to be afraid of failure. I was ashamed to admit when I did wrong. It made me feel inadequate.
Now I am humbled by it. I am proud to claim ownership to my own goofs – mostly.
It means I tried. It shows I care. As long as I am constantly working to fight that nasty beast called failure, altering each attempt to find temporary perfection, I can be happy. I can be me.
Still, I don’t enjoy the disappointment. But I have learned to embrace it.
Through sports and writing and learning and life, I have learned to accept when things can be better.
I have learned to turn failure into success. I know the more times I fail, the greater the chances of succeeding become.
Even Batman knows the importance of failure. He learned it when he was a child, and it stayed with him even when he was the savior of Gotham.
“Why do we fall, Bruce?” Alfred, his butler, asks as Wayne Manor burns to the ground. “So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
Giving up is not an option. Not to Batman, not to me.
We must reach from the depths of despair and dissatisfaction and grab tightly to that which we know can be better.
It is what makes us who we are. It’s how we live, how we survive.
Failure is not easy. It is an absolute necessity.
And I welcome it.
Story by Ryan Richardson, Sports Editor