Have you ever been driving in traffic on your normal route and the next thing you know you hear on the traffic report that there’s a tragic accident ahead that’s causing all vehicles to detour?  I can recall this happening to me one morning.  I normally leave home at 6:15am to bring my son to school in the city.  Our normal routine is to leave home at 6:15am, we get to my mom’s at about 7:05am, stay there for 10 minutes then off to school in which he arrives at about 730am.  This particular morning, there was a massive accident that closed all three lanes of the interstate which meant all cars had to detour.  What’s normally a 45 minute drive to the city turned into a 2.5 hour ride to the city with me dropping my son off to school at 8:45am.  WOW right??  That was one of the most frustrating mornings ever.  I’d gone straight pass frustrated to angry.  However, once I dropped my son off to school I had to choices, simmer in my anger and blow my entire day or to suck it up, purge my psyche and start my day from there.  I chose the latter.

I certainly get it.  Being forced to detour from our normal routines is frustrating to say the least but at times detours are necessary especially on the route to success and greatness.  A detour to destiny is almost inevitable.  Why? Because most of us get to success but not the way that we think.  It’s almost always an alternate route which simply means we things don’t work out as we believe it’s not a requirement to quit, it’s a requirement to persist.  The Bible has one of the most tangible stories of how one can get to destiny via a detour.  Joseph, the beloved and favorite son of Jacob.  Jacob made it known that Joseph was his favorite son which made his brothers jealous.  One day he shared a dream with his brothers that he’d had where his brothers were bowing to him.  I’m certain Joseph knew the dream meant that he’d be King one day however I’m sure he wasn’t counting on that trip to the Palace would be through a pit and a prison.  Joseph certainly took the long route to get to his destiny.  If you’re on an alternate route to greatness right now, DON’T QUIT, JUST PERSISTS!!

When we feel we are on a detour, this is when we seek God and ask “what lesson would you like me to learn and how will this get me to my destiny?  The detour is not designed to make you quit, the detour will allow you to learn some valuable lessons and to also understand that God is in control not you.  You have your plans and God has his and ultimately his plan wins!! He knew just how you’d reach your destiny and that’s via the detour.  Your detours are simply God’s perfect plan to get you exactly where He wants you to be.

My name is Annette J. Morris, M.A. and I’m a failure.  I’ve failed once, twice, maybe 3,000 times.  I’ve failed classes in College, as a boss, daughter, friend, wife and if parenting came with a grade I’d probably have a high F…need I go on?  I’m certain you get it!  I’ve failed, I’ve failed often but I’ve failed FORWARD!.

Far too often we view failure as detrimental when in fact it’s instrumental to our growth and success in life.  Failure paves the way for future successes because it teaches us lessons that can be taught no other way.  The Bible teaches us in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for our good.  It doesn’t say all “good things” neither does it indicate all of our wins will work for our good.  This scripture is an indication that all our good combined with all our failures will turn around and do us a favor.  There’s no greater indication of this than the life of Michael Jordan.  We know him as Air Jordan, one of the undisputed greatest basketball players of all time.  Six championship rings, 10 time NBA scoring champ, multiple game winning shots, scored 38 points in a game he played with the flu and the list of accolades goes on and on.  What we don’t know is that Michael attributes his success to his failures.  He’s quoted as saying “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

How many of us can relate with his experience?  We all certainly have a story of how we’ve failed doing something.  I’m presently in the process of releasing my fourth book which is a project I’m co-authoring with 12 other phenomenal female authors.  The book is entitled Favor in Failure: How failure is the key to success.  Each author has a story of how failure has in turn  lead them to and attributed to their present day success.  One author shares how a failing credit score, combined with the need to generate more revenue to increase her score to secure housing for she and her kids lead her to her passion of writing.  Today, she’s a Grammy nominated song-writer, published author and entrepreneur.  Another author shares how failing classes in College forced her to self-assess and admit she was pursuing a career that didn’t align with her passion.  The failure lead her to her true passion in which now she has a Masters’ Degree is an entrepreneur, a motivational speaker and published author all aligned with her passion and purpose.

We MUST change how we view failure.  Failure is not a dead end but a detour to reroute us to success.  It’s only the end if we quit and we all know, in the pursuit of greatness, QUITTING’S NOT AN OPTION.  So, what’s your failure story?  Whatever it is, make it count.

Failure!! Get comfortable with it.  Embrace it!! FAIL, FAIL OFTEN but above all FAIL FORWARD!!

Signed,

Annette J Morris, M.A

Chief Failure Officer