how many times have you fallen?
does it really matter?
Society will have you believe that you have to push yourself and to really succeed at anything, it must be done on the first try. That first attempt is all that matters. If that one time that you shot for the stars, and you missed, well than maybe that thing that you are attempting, that thing you are trying, well maybe it's not for you.
Wrong.
History is full of repeated attempts at forging our own way. We are humans, full of intricacies and cells full of magic. We are not machines. We are, in a word, fallible. And gosh, isn't that marvelous?
To get that thing right, to follow that path that we keep veering off of, sometimes we have to keep at it and keep at it some more. One failed attempt does not mean the door has swung shut and that's it. Knock on that door again. Get back on the path. You may have stumbled but those dreams you have are there for the taking.
I read a quote recently that said, "Keep track of how many times you get up, not how many times you fall" and I wanted to share that here because I feel that it is important to remember. When I have times where I am struggling with a bout of depression, I don't lament that I have fallen into a downward spiral again. True, I have "fallen" into despair and melancholy, but I do not beat myself up about it. If I thought about every single time that I have had to deal with my depression when it makes itself known, I would feel even worse than I was already feeling. Instead, I remind myself that this too shall pass, and there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I will get up, because my track record has shown that I always do.
I just wanted to put this out there because I know the end of the year can bring about self-recriminations. We can get inside our own heads and start to feel upset that we didn't accomplish some big audacious goal, or we tried a business plan, and it hasn't been fruitful like we hoped. Maybe life just went off the rails completely for you and you are feeling the word "failure" bouncing around your brain.
Friend, take a deep breath. No self-flagellations here. You did not fail. You are not a failure.
Don't look in the rearview mirror, you are not going that way.
Take a deep breath. Every day is a new day to start again. Write a new paragraph. Get back on the path.
You can do it. You can get back up. I believe in you, and I am cheering for you.
You are a bright light that no one can dim.
Remember that ❤
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the lovely road is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber 🍃 November has always been one of my favorite months of the year, with December a strong second. Ever since I was a child, there has always been something about this month that spoke to me. I appreciate the browning of…
words on gratefulness and being content
the lovely road is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I recently finished reading the book Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton. She is the same author who wrote
Thank you, this resonated with me.
"Try again. Fail again. Fail better", wrote Samuel Beckett in "Worstward Ho!"
I like the quote about counting how many times you get up, not how many time you fall.