more thoughts on failure

posted on: Tuesday, April 1, 2014

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.   Abraham Lincoln


I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.   Michael Jordan


It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.    J. K. Rowling


I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.   Oprah Winfrey


Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.  Richard Branson


Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.   Mia Hamm


Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal.   Mike Ditka


Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.   Soichiro Honda


It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.   Charles Kettering


Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets.   Michael Korda


Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.    Winston Churchill


In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.   Bill Cosby


Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.   Charlie Chaplin


Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.   Theodore Roosevelt


Failure is a great teacher, and I think when you make mistakes and you recover from them and you treat them as valuable learning experiences, then you've got something to share.   Steve Harvey


And I saved my favorite for last... 


You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don't win, at least you can be satisfied that you've tried. If you don't accept failure as a possibility, you don't set high goals, you don't branch out, you don't try - you don't take the risk.   Rosalynn Carter

lessons learned

posted on: Monday, March 31, 2014

Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.   ~ Coco Chanel


The key to success is failure. If you let failure teach you instead of break you it can teach you to persevere, it can teach you how to come up with creative solutions, and it can teach you resilience. I know it seems counterintuitive but to succeed in life, to find your bliss, your joy, your whatever you're looking for you have to be willing to fail. I want my life to be more creative but I struggle with what creative outlet to pursue so instead of trying any I try none. I think to myself "I've always loved writing I should give that a go." and then fear says "no you'll probably suck at it and fail miserably" so I don't bother. Reality is WHO THE HELL CARES? If it doesn't work out move on. I have a tendency to let the "what ifs" of life paralyze me and the biggest what if has always been what if I fail. I don't care anymore. The last thing I failed at was a job that had left me physically and emotionally spent, joyless, and depressed. I failed, I lost said job, and even though I spent the next 9 months unemployed I had felt like the weight of the world had lifted off my shoulders and I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Failure is good and I'm not only going to embrace the failures that come my way I'm going to allow myself room for failure. 

Thinking to myself...

posted on: Monday, February 10, 2014

Blogging is a confusing experience for me. So much of what you read when you read about blogging talks about finding your niche, having an editing calendar, and running a blog like a business that it can feel overwhelming when all you wanted to do was start a blog so that you could write and post things that caught your eye. I wanted to blog as a creative exploration for myself not to gain hundreds of thousands of followers or become "internet famous". I don't want to narrow down my passions into a single niche in order to gain followers, I don't want to narrow down my passions for any reason.  Needless to say, I became overwhelmed and gave up. I read this post last week that reminded me that this blog is indeed for me. Most specifically this line "... [blogging is] one of the single most effective tools for shaping, sharing, and holding yourself accountable to living the life you want. That was everything I needed to get my head back in the game. This space is not about perfection. This space is about seeking my creative truth so good-bye Type-A-wanting-to-do-everything-perfect and hello to messy-you-never-know-what-you're-going-to-get. 

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