My eight-year-old wanted a skateboard for Christmas.
I wasn't crazy about it. My wife wasn't crazy about it. Yet, Santa apparently chose to fulfill his wish.
Needless to say, he was giddy with excitement. And in his excitement we were happy. My wife even went on YouTube with him and found how-to videos by the man, Tony Hawk. All was good.
For a few days, all he did was practice on that thing. During the day, in the yard. At nights, in the house. I cringed when I saw the scratches on our hard-wood floor, but turned a blind eye.
One night, while I wrote, I heard a thud from downstairs. "You okay?"
"Um, yeah."
I went back to my work. Ten minutes later, another noise. "What happened?"
"Nothing. I'm practicing."
I knew better than to just walk away, but I did. Five minutes later--you guessed it--a louder bang.
I inspected the war area... I would have been justified to get mad, take away the skateboard and tell my wife I told you so. But I didn't.
I can replace plaster and paint. I can't take away words that will forever tell him that failure is bad.
You see, I'd been breaking my own "plaster" upstairs. I'd been struggling with my writing. Trying and failing. Trying and failing.There is nothing wrong in failing. Implied within failure is that you gave it a shot, you tried. And more importantly, you tried again.
If you're hitting walls, don't give up. Don't talk yourself out of it. There are plenty of people in your life (including the little voice in your head) who will convince you that you're not good enough, smart enough, creative enough.
Fail. Fail gloriously.
Some of us will understand and applaud you for trying. And do me a favor--once in a while, remind me that It's okay for me to get it wrong too.
I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
~ Michael Jordan
Fight the good fight!
