Failure has taught me many things.

Self-hate, for instance. Failure has taught me lots and lots about that. It has taught me how to be really great at tearing myself down and convincing myself that I will never succeed. It has taught me fear.

Failure hurts. It cuts deep and it is difficult to recover from. Some failures are easier to get over than others. Some stick with you for years and years. Failure can make us feel ashamed. It can make us feel like we are less than. It may make us feel like we will never ever be good enough.

On the opposite side of the coin, failure teaches us to have faith. It teaches us that things really will be okay, someday, even if they aren’t right now. Failure teaches us that we are capable of overcoming what seems to be impossible and that we are all worthy of redemption.

The more you experience, the more you see that failing isn’t the end of the world.

Failure taught me self-hate, and then it taught me to get over that and try again. It has taught me strength. It has forced me to learn perseverance. It has pointed me in the right direction and urged me to look at my part in things. It has encouraged me to take responsibility for my actions. It has made me wiser. It has made me kinder. It has made me more patient, loving, and understanding.

Failure has taught me how to pick myself up again, over and over. It has taught me that tomorrow is a new day, and that everything is figureoutable. I mean it- every single thing is figureoutable.

I read lots of great quotes that tell me that if I am failing, that means I am trying. I like those quotes. They tell me that if I am trying and failing that I am living.

I have finally reached a point in my life where I realize that I would rather fail a million times than just be handed everything. How boring would that be anyway, to have a perfect life?

Give me failure. Give me experiences. Give me joy and give me sadness. Let me crash and burn so that I can learn how to fly. Make me feel alive.

Nobody has it perfect. Not one soul on this entire Earth. We all go through different hardships and fight our own battles. We all experience failure at one time or another. How wonderful is that, that failure is a common denominator between us all? Doesn’t that make it just a little easier to go out there, fail miserably, and try it all again?

It’s by doing all the wrong things that we learn to do the right ones. Our mistakes, our poor decisions, our failures- they do not define us.

What defines us is how we react when we fail. How hard we try. How well we learn. How agile we are in bouncing back and how quickly we can forge a new path. We must work with what we have and give it all we’ve got.

Dust our knees off and jump right back in the game.

What has failure taught you?

xoxo

Sarah