There is no success or failure, only constant learning

Today I want to share with you, dear reader, one of the deepest realizations I have had in this incarnation.

There is no success or failure. Only constant learning.

This dimension we live in —the human experience— is governed by relentless dualities: love-hate, white-black, light-darkness. And our current way of life seems completely ruled by the most visible pole: success-failure. An endless race where everything is measured by fixed results in time. If you arrive, you triumph. If not, you fail. A beautiful trap of this space-time dimension.

For much of my life, especially when I was a professional footballer, I lived enslaved by that law. A constant emotional rollercoaster: a good match made me successful; a bad weekend, a total failure. My value, my self-esteem, depended on external causes. Without realizing it, I was a prisoner of circumstances. And where there is external dependence, there is deep suffering.

In some book I read that there are two paths to understanding: experience and knowledge.

Through experience, one develops as a being —one is to the same extent that one lives a situation.

Through knowledge (study, observation of others), one avoids unnecessary pain and clears the path.

Here another duality seems to arise: experience vs. knowledge.

But the true task is to find unity between both poles. The bridge.

One must be and know at the same time to truly understand.

This does not happen overnight. It requires repeated and conscious efforts over time until forging the necessary vibrational frequency to comprehend.

In my stage as a player I was immersed in pure experience, with very little development of knowledge. In youth one believes they know everything, wants to do things “their way.” Divine sin of the ego.

That ego brought me to this very moment, but along the way —through pure ignorance— I suffered greatly and, what hurts more, I made others suffer.

Of course, experience also brought me very pleasant moments.

When I decided to move to South Korea with who was then my girlfriend and today is my wife, I stopped playing professionally. Instead, I began teaching as a coach. That’s where the real change began: acquiring knowledge, seeing all my blind spots, integrating past experience with new understanding. Reaching unity. Reaching understanding.

It is important to clarify: understanding is not a permanent state. It is a continuous flow. When you believe you have reached it, it immediately moves away toward a new horizon.

To believe that one possesses absolute truth or complete understanding is arrogance. And arrogance closes every possibility of continuing to learn.

Upon recognizing what I was previously unable to see, I understood something essential: the root of all suffering is ignorance. That ignorance always places us on one pole of duality, fragments us and makes us believe that the fragment we are in is the only existing truth.

Most of the time we live in that ignorance: believing ourselves successful or failures, creating conditionings that dictate our life, ignoring that everything is a continuous flow and that in this plane of consciousness,

the only thing that is permanent is impermanence.

So, how can we measure success and failure? Based on what?

If today’s success can be tomorrow’s failure and the other way around…

When I lose I learn. When I win I learn.

When things don’t go as I expect, it is an opportunity to seek a solution. When things go as I expect, it is an opportunity to remain vigilant and stay on the path.

To be attentive and relaxed at the same time.

Attentive to see the opportunities life brings to my door for learning.

Relaxed with the certainty that everything is arranged for my learning.

One sets the rhythm. And although the time to learn is eternal, we should work with our knowledge as if this were the only life we have.

Leaving duality. Rising toward unity.

We have incarnated in one of the most decisive moments of humanity. All our actions count. No matter how small they seem.

It is time to “ask for the ball at our feet,” to assume responsibility in this key moment of the match and to work on ourselves.

Without my contribution, without your contribution, without our contribution, humanity might not reach the critical mass needed to elevate its collective consciousness.

Everything you do counts…

My dear friend, there is no success or failure.

Only constant learning.

And you? Where are you today “asking for the ball at your feet”? Where are you “hiding behind the defender”?