I love choices...

"For every failure, there's an alternative
course of action. You just have to find it.
When you come to a roadblock,
take a detour."
- Mary Kay Ash
Click Here For Success Tip # 037


And take the harder routes. I gave up going to college after I was married.  I could have left it at that.  I didn't.  I went back to school and one class at a time worked my way through a photography degree.  At age 32 I couldn't walk through a grocery store to do my shopping.  (The detergent section was great, pull out a box of laundry soap and sit down and rest.)  Age 55 I finished the Lozilu Mud run, a 5K obstacle course.  I met challenges and failed.  I would get up dust myself off and trudge forward even if I had to crawl.  I learned during this time the principle of mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.  Some things other people view as a failure.  In high school, I played a piano piece in a competition.  I blew it.  Totally forgot an entire section.  Some people viewed this as a failure.  I didn't.  I got out there and did it.  I didn't plan or want to win.  I just faced a fear and did it.  I learned that if the choice I originally want shuts a door in my face, I can stand there staring at what might have been or look around for a window or breeze way or gate or ladder or shovel to dig under the wall.  This proved especially helpful during counseling.  I would go to a session get all prepped to do well the next week and just fall flat on my face.  The door would slam before I got through it.  I would crash.  KavinCoach once asked what the advantage of hitting bottom again.  I laughed and said it was familiar territory and the only way I had to go was up.  I choose to try again and again.  I admire Thomas Edison and his perspective of failure. 

"I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have
succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have
eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will
work."

― Thomas A. Edison http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=747226

I tackled many a problem by finding out what doesn't work.  My work in the computer labs consisted of me finding all the ways that didn't work and how to get out of the mess. I knew that if I did it the wrong way so would a student and if I had the answer to solve the problem then I was considered a genius.  Unfortunately, some people felt intimidated by my ability to fix computers and were afraid to ask me questions.  Most people got over that when I explained that when I first learned to use a mouse I had it out on my hand.  My brother asked me what I was doing.  "I ran out of mouse pad."  After the class finished laughing at my misadventure they new I understood problems and failure because I found 700 things that didn't work.