Failure is My New Silver Lining!

FAILURE. It's big, fat and just plain ugly to see and even worse to feel on the inside. I use to hate this word with all my heart. I have a brand new outlook on it and what this word means to me. I am officially and completely refusing to feel bad on the inside about it...STARTING NOW! You should also consider this.

Failure is NEVER a loss. Failure is about always learning. Failure is about acknowledging something didn't happen as you had hoped, picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and MOVING FORWARD with new knowledge. We all know that knowledge is POWER.

Failure has been redefined for me. I am dumping the old negative connotations and feelings that come with this word and replacing it with a new determination to find that damn silver lining EVERY TIME! It's shiny for a reason, people!!

My passion in life is learning. Learning on every level. Learning in every capacity. Learning in every context. Learning intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. I've lost far too much time feeling inadequate, overwhelmed and just plain not good enough. It becomes consuming and at some point you aren't able to see or feel much else.

Life moves at a very rapid pace and there is always going to be somebody else who possesses talents, skills and strengths that seem more desirable then you own. I am losing the notion that I fail simply because I don't measure up to another. I am also ridding myself of the notion that I fail because I haven't lived up to some random and perhaps irrational expectation that I set for myself.

I won't further impress the importance and precious value of time. There is only so much of it in a day and in our lives and it won't last forever. I don't want to spend mine feeling bad and wondering where I went wrong. I want to look at every situation, every decision, every circumstance and see every silver lining that lies therein. No more regrets. No more looking back longingly. No more wishing things were different and absolutely no more feeling like a failure.

The past is the past and you cannot change it. You can definitely learn from it and are empowered when you do so. Silver. Shiny. Look for it. Learn from it. Appreciate it. Apply it and you will never be a failure. It's time to keep trying, keep learning and being better off because of it.

On the B Side: Along with the redefinition of failure on my behalf has come the ability to start to let the guilt go. I simply cannot express how liberating this feels. Give yourself permission to not have to do everything perfectly. Do your very best and feel great knowing that you put it all out there. Be relentless in your efforts to do good and be good. It's okay if your best isn't the exact same as it was yesterday or that it may be different from your best tomorrow. Life is fluid and causes us to adjust. The point is that there is much to learn and that is the shiniest silver lining that I know no matter how you define it.