Do you ever have those days where your blindsided by something that happened? Here you are just cruising along thinking things are starting to go in the right direction and then WHAM. Back to reality.

I feel like I have been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast. I try something and try something hoping something will be successful but nothing seems to take hold. Frankly, I’m pretty damn tired of it.

And then, as I randomly surf the web, a link lands under my mouse pointer titled “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” by J.K. Rowling.

So, as I sit at my computer, with steam still slowly seeping out of my ears, I look up to the sky and say, “ok, I get it, I’ll read it… and thanks.” Because I really felt like someone somewhere was trying to tell me something at that moment. As I read the speech it became more clear to me that some of life’s best lessons are learned out of our greatest failures.

As I read through the paragraphs, I discovered a lot of parallels with my own journey through college and life. Though I didn’t attend Harvard, I did tend to follow the approach of “what is going to get me the best job” instead of really discovering what I wanted to do. Learning comes ridiculously easy to me, that’s why it didn’t matter what I picked I’d be able to do it. My problem: I lacked passion. My parents definitely influenced my decisions – being the first in my family to attend a University, random hints would be dropped about lawyer or doctor, etc. I didn’t want to let them down. But, I wanted to be an artist. Actually, I always said to myself, I just want a happy family. Not much of a career goal, I guess, and compounded with a struggle to get pregnant it is difficult to see past the present to imagine the future.

I’ve tried new businesses that didn’t work, new careers that didn’t suit me, new ideas that seemed to flop – I guess part of me is used to life being easy – used to the girl that always passed a test without studying. And, I think as life gets harder, part of that optimistic innocence is lost and replaced with resentment.

As I look ahead to my 30th birthday, I loathe the fact that this is where I am in my life. Although, I look forward to it as a milestone, a chance to begin a new chapter. A new opportunity for a new beginning. I’m ready for change and the opportunity to use my imagination to create a new tomorrow. Because I have failed, I believe that it has helped me define my passion for living life. I think it has made me stronger, maybe more opinionated, and probably more driven.

Excerpts from the speech:

“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 fail by default.”

“written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

Thank you for reminding me that it is ok to fail and more importantly it is ok to dream.