“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case, you have failed by default.”
– J.K. Rowling
Hello lovely readers!
I hope your last week has been blessed.
Today’s quote is from the wonderful J.K. Rowling, best known as the author of the Harry Potter series, and the worlds first billionaire writer, given at a commencement address for Harvard graduates in 2008. [You can watch it here].
Looking at Rowling’s life now, one might not be convinced that she knows much about failure, but in fact she is well acquainted. As she states in her speech, at the age of 28, she was the biggest failure she knew. She was an unemployed, single parent, her marriage had fallen apart and she was living in poverty. But rather than letting that “failure” define her, she took what she could from it and created something truly remarkable.
Most of us prefer to avoid failure. We don’t put ourselves out there to get what we want, unconsciously deciding that we don’t want something enough to weather the potential discomfort or risk of nonsuccess.
But is this really living?
The fact is that “failure” is part of life. It can’t be avoided without rendering life a pointless exercise. It’s part of living our life’s purpose. Even when we are absolutely sure of our purpose and path in life, we will still experience failure. It’s important to remember this because we can get caught up in magical thinking that says everything will go right for us when we are on the right path. But it’s just not the case.
Failure will teach you things about yourself that there is no other way to discover. My marriage “failed” but if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be writing this right now and doing work I love. How could that really be a failure?
If we are open to it, we can learn so much more from failure than from success. Discipline, persistence, wisdom, inner strength, resilience – none of these come through having an easy ride. They come from working through our defeats and misadventures, and appreciating them for what they ultimately bring us – growth.
As author and yogi Stephen Cope writes, every single failure we experience is part of finding out who we are. When we are committed to continual self discovery we can have gratitude for each step along the way, even the so called missteps.
How can you truly appreciate your “failures” going forward into this week?
Have an amazing week.
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