People keep asking me what I am going to do now. I have no answer besides, go to the reptile show in Daytona, come back, unpack, and find work. Today I am thinking about a quote from Michael Jordan:
"I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why... I succeed."
And I have been thinking about two kinds of failure:
Stuck at the starting line failure - where I never tried for fear of failing. Technically, I haven't failed. But in my internal ledger the life balance is negative because I still want it, I still don't have it.
Missing the shot failure - where I wanted something and I went for it and I missed the mark. Where I asked for something or applied for something and was rejected.
In the first case you don't fail but you don't gain either.
In second case you fail but by following through you end up in a different place. You fail but you don't lose. You gain experience.
So if I can find the ovaries, the task for my immediate future is to actively pursue rejection and failure instead of hiding from it.
2 comments:
I'm sorry, did you say you were going to a reptile show?? We really need to be living closer to one another so I can accompany you on these types of missions... ;)
(Sorry to pick out the one random thing from an otherwise thoughtful and introspective post)
fishlamp: I was talking to some folks about this whole bit earlier this evening. It must be the season for this kind of life evaluation or something. Thinking at the starting line. That makes me think of what Kevin Costner said in Bull Durham:"Don't think, it can only hurt the ball club."
(Help me, help me, I have turned into a cheesy quote machine.)
kat e: Yup. Reptile show/conference/meeting/convention/thingie. It's not my doing it's My Guy. He's big on things reptilian. My vote would be something freakier and geekier: DragonCon or Conneticon or the TapeOpCon, SXSW, BuffyCon (or what have you.) I'm looking forward to it, though.
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