Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Why this title?

The title you see above is not as depressing as it sounds. Sorry to disappoint. I'm actually a pretty up person most of the time. It's actually the half idealistic-half realistic view with which I've come to view the world.

I've got a quote on the white board in our office that says "Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get up." It's a Chinese proverb that a friend emailed over to me since she and I share the obsessive and quite strange love of a good quote. This one stuck and it happened into my life at a time when it was very appropriate. I won't go into gory details, but it really helped me remember that I wasn't failing so much as I was simply falling as long as I kept standing back up.

So, that's why I'm here back on my feet. Gaining the strength to fall back down again. I used to believe that true success was never.falling.down.ever. So wrong. Everyone falls down and the truly strong people muster the strength to get back up, dust themselves off, recover from their injuries and grow stronger and more flexible from those injuries. That's true success - bouncing back. And, how do you bounce back unless you fall down? You can't. Realizing this was very freeing. So now I don't concentrate on being perfect, always playing it safe so I won't topple over and get hurt. Now, I am ready to take risks, get hurt, stumble and just plain biff it every once in a while so I can stand back up and face the day again stronger, smarter, and with cool scars to show it.