When You Can’t Get It Right, Do It Again

We challenge the lie that one mistake erases progress and make a case for failing forward with discipline. From hard rounds in the gym to the grind of sobriety, we share how to show up anyway, build a plan, and keep moving until it clicks.

• reframing failure as data not identity
• doing double the work to close skill gaps
• training stories that turn fear into focus
• handling “bad luck” with routine and agency
• resetting after relapse with tactical steps
• faith, calling, and showing up without applause
• simple rules for forward movement on hard days
• using comparison as signal, not a stop sign

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Native Viking podcast Discipline over motivation.

Transcript

The Central Question: Keep Failing?

SPEAKER_00 0:18

What's going on, everybody? My name is Dustin Charles Little, and you are listening to another episode of the Native Viking podcast, Discipline Over Motivation. So what do you do when you can't get it right? Where do you go? Where do you hide? What um what old habits do you fall back on? What do you do when you can't get it right when you keep making the same mistakes? A lot of people will fold in half. They'll fold in half, they'll go backwards, they'll take 20 steps backwards. Meanwhile, they had already made those 20 steps forwards, and they had already made so much progress, and they were all already doing so well, and yet they made one little mistake, and that little mistake made them move so far backwards.

Shame, Setbacks, And Starting Over

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Shame and guilt entered their mind and their heart, and they decided, why am I doing this anyways? What do you do when you can't get it right? You do it again. You try again. And as my quote goes, fail as many times as it takes to get it right. That's what I'm gonna do. That's what I have done with my life. And that's what I teach my students. I teach that to my friends, my wife, my children. I teach that to everybody that I come across. Fail as many times as it takes to get it right. That's what we do. And so in my life, I've had certain things that I wasn't so great at. I wasn't great at a lot of things, actually.

Double The Work, Double The Growth

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Um, I've had to uh train twice as hard as the other person. I've had to read twice as much as the other person. I've had to do twice as much homework just to catch up. I've had to, you know, I've had to do double. Everything that everybody else has to do just one time, I've had to do double. And sometimes even more so. Sometimes I've had to do triple. And so I've had this mindset of, you know, I've got to do whatever it takes to get onto the same level as everybody else, if not further. So, whatever that means for me, for me, that means like, you know, if I was picked last for a baseball team, or if I wasn't picked at all, or if I wasn't picked for basketball or volleyball or hockey or whatever the sport may be, um, I went and trained twice as hard as everybody else.

Training Stories From The Ring

SPEAKER_00 3:02

And then I ended up showing up um twice as good as everybody else. That's not me blowing up my own head, that's just facts. You said I couldn't do something, I show you that I could. I came after it twice as hard. And so there's something in your life right now that people are telling you that you can't do, and you keep getting it wrong. And there's they're they're pointing a finger at you and they're saying, see, you can't get it right. You can't get it right. You keep trying the same thing, but you can't get it right. But listen, it takes failure after failure in order to get it right. There is no first time, you're the best, you're the champion of the world. It doesn't work that way. As a matter of fact, you have to dig trenches forever in order to get to a place where you really want to be, in order to get to a place where people are watching you, in order to get to a place where people aspire to be as good as you are. And even in my martial arts career, I remember like, I remember not even being able to like spar really well, like going to the gym, having major butterflies in my stomach, almost feeling sick, knowing that I'm gonna be going up against killers and getting beat up. And I kept showing up. I kept showing up. I even remember being at Boss Rutin's Elite MMA in California, and uh, you know, the fight team was in the ring and I wasn't allowed to be on the fight team. And I just showed up every single day, three to four hours a day. I was there every day, getting beat up, getting choked out in jujitsu, getting, you know, leg kicked and body shot, knocked down, and and even like close to knockouts in the ring. And I would just stand back up and I would keep fighting. And that's something that's hard to train into somebody, is to have the heart to continue to fight, even though you the world keeps pushing you down, knocking you down, saying, nah, you're not good enough, man. Maybe you should pick something else. What do you do when you can't get it right? I I I felt like I couldn't get it right. I felt like I wasn't on the same level as everybody else. And how was I supposed to be the greatest fighter? Or how was I supposed to be the greatest person that I could be if I kept falling down

Pushing Through “Bad Luck”

SPEAKER_00 5:20

and I couldn't just I couldn't just get it right. I want you to think about that for yourself. Something's continuously making you fall down. You're you're continuously failing on certain areas and aspects in your life, and you just can't seem to get it right. You continue to drink, you continue to uh overeat, you have a sugar addiction, you know, you continue to uh you know gamble and waste all of your money away. I mean, there's just so much stuff that we continue to do and fail time and time again. So, what do you do? You do whatever it takes, that's what you do. You do whatever it takes to not quit. You do whatever it takes to push forward, despite everything that you feel is up against you. Because in my life, in my in my experience, I've I've I've felt like the whole world has been up against me. And every time that I've tried to do something, it's almost like Dustin, you must have the worst luck. You know, I've I've literally had people say this, dude, you you literally have the worst luck. You know, because so many things have happened in my life, so many fights have been canceled, and so many opportunities have been burned, so many times, so many uh, you know, close businesses have been built, and all of a sudden they just fell through. And there's just so much that has happened in my life, and I lose friends and I lose family, and you know, and and and it just continues to pile up. It compiles and piles and piles. And then people just come to me, man, I don't know why your luck is so bad. Yet you continue to push, and then all of a sudden now you're a champion. I don't get it. Like, when are you gonna quit? What what would what would make you quit? Nothing would make me quit. I'll tell you that right now. So, what do you do when you can't get it right? You continue to push. You get up, you dust yourself off, and you do it again. I

Sobriety, Guilt, And Resetting

SPEAKER_00 7:26

recently had a young man uh um, you know, he came to me talking about sobriety, and he's on, you know, he's doing his thing, and you know, he got five months into sobriety, and then all of a sudden he fell off the wagon. He said, What do you do? What do you what do I do? I feel guilty, I feel I feel shameful. I said, just get up and do it again. Because uh long story short, I can't do anything for anybody. You got to do it all for yourself. What do I do? I feel so much guilt. Well, get up, do it again. Do it, do it until it clicks. Do it until you get it right. Do it until there's there's there's no other way. And that's what I believe in my life. There's just no other way. I'm I'm coming up on five years sobriety. There's just no other way. I don't I don't have a choice. I've left myself no choice. I have the itch. I've got I've got this bug that's just constantly bothering me to be a to be a world champion. And I know that it bothers um, you know, people. I know it it can even bother my wife. It can bother my in-laws, it can bother uh people who are close to me because they're worried about me, but they don't know that you know there's there's this something there's this thing that I have to do and I've got to accomplish it. And it's not for anybody other than myself. Like to know that I have sought something through, that I that I followed it through, that there is something in my life that I did not give up on. There is something in my life that I followed through on, and I became that thing, and and and that's who I am. And I've lost fights and I've I've lost big opportunities, and I've I've had to say no to other opportunities, which would have put me on a on a different platform and given me uh the things that I wanted, and and and it sucks. And so, what do I do when I when I can't get it right? I continue to push. And so, what do you do when you can't get it right? Do you follow the same routine, you know, new levels, same devils type of thing? You try to go to a new level, but you you know, something gets in your way, and so the same devil pulls you back. The same addictions pull you back, the same poor me mindset pulls you back, the same traumatized uh, you know, behaviors and thoughts

Faith, Identity, And Choosing Purpose

SPEAKER_00 9:44

that you used to have just come uh um flowing back into your mind, and you get consumed by it. What do you do when you can't get it right? Where do you go to? I'll tell you what you should be doing. I'll tell you what you should be doing. You should be doing the thing despite despite what's going on, despite how you're feeling, despite your relationship with your wife or your husband or with your kids or or or with your best friend, whatever's going on in your life that's stopping you, that's making you feel depressed, or or or or just not not wanting to move forward, feeling like you're not good enough, feeling like everything that you're doing isn't enough, but it is. You want to know why it is? You were created. You were created by the creator, and he chose you above other people. Because he said, This one is good. He said, This one is good. I like him or her, I want them to go down and I want them to represent. What do you do when you can't get it right? You do it anyways, you become the thing, you become consumed, you get obsessed, you create a plan, you fight back,

Show Up Anyways: A Repeatable Plan

SPEAKER_00 11:16

you become a warrior. Warriors have to fight back, they have to protect, they have to show up day in, day out, uh, despite how they are feeling, despite what's going on in their lives, despite the fact that there's a war in their back door, despite that there's a world uh full of social media and everybody's competing to be the best, and they all have their own stories and they all have their own, you know, million followers and all this kind of kind of stuff, and and and you still have to push. And you're comparing yourself to all of this, and so it makes you feel low and it makes you feel unrecognized. But God said, Nope, I chose you. You're more than enough. So, what do you do when you can't get it right? You show up anyways. What do you do when you don't feel good? You show up anyways. What do you do when the world is against you? You show up anyways. What do you do when you're depressed? You show up anyways. What do you do when you're having anxiety? You show up anyways. What do you do when you don't have the resources? Show up with what you got. And continue to build from there. What if you what do you do when you don't have a support system? You become your own support system. You turn to God. What do you do if if nobody's cheering you on, you cheer for yourself? What do you do if just nothing ever seems to go right? Keep pushing forward. There is no easy answer. There is no right or wrong. What there is is just forward movement. What there is is a mind that never gives up. Eventually, you will break through. It can only be that way.

Relentless Effort And Breakthrough

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Eventually, you will break through. Eventually, there's there's no other option than to make a breakthrough. Because you've worked relentlessly, tirelessly, you've given everything you've got, you've given every resource, eventually you have to break through. So, what do you do when you can't get it right? You push forward, anyways. Thanks so much for listening to this morning's podcast. It's short, it's sweet, it's right to the point. We all have something that's going on in our lives right now. We keep continuing to make the same mistakes. So, what do you do? Get up, dust yourself off, and do it again. And I need you to fail as many times as it takes to get it right. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Native Viking podcast Discipline over motivation.