“Success and failure are both part of life. Both are not permanent.”
Shah Rukh Khan
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We don’t always win, but we can grow stronger from trying. Put that on a bumper sticker and call it a day.
The most difficult part is not letting failure get to you, and failure is soooo great at doing just that and getting in our heads. Here’s a great example: looking for a job.
Have you ever had the soul crushing experience of trying to find a job and yet only getting rejection emails or no responses at all? The problem is we are comparing something personal — our lives and careers — with something that’s also personal but abstracted behind dozens or even hundreds of resume’s to read from mostly complete strangers in the companies inbox. (No wonder word of mouth usually is the method of choice for hiring.) It’s hard not to feel down and low self-worth when day after day you are met with rejection.
And yet failure is part of the process. Rejection is part of creativity. Put yourself and your work out there and eventually it will meet criticism, bad reviews, or worse — silence.
Some critiques are worth listening to. If it pushes us to do better and try harder, then it’s worth the immediate sting. And un-constructive critiques should be thrown out and set on fire.
Inaction from fear doesn’t change anything. Inaction just keeps us exactly where we are — usually somewhere we don’t want to be.
Trying something new each day does. ‘Okay, that photo didn’t work out so well, what can I try next?’.
As long as we keep getting up, we never actually fail. Even going through the worst failure doesn’t stop the world spinning. Another day always comes. Another chance to try again.
STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #714
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