Friday, April 3, 2015

Fail Again

There’s a philosophy that I used to gravitate towards: If I don’t try, I can’t fail. Failure is such a dirty word in our culture. As embarrassing as adult acne, second-hand clothes, and purple El Caminos.

We need a new outlook on failure.

Spring feels like a good time to try something new. It feels like the right time to fail at something. Better than New Years in my humble opinion (Yeah, like I’ve ever had one of those!). Spring is a re-birth, a re-imagining, a re-mover if it has to be.

Dust off the cobwebs from winter. Wash everything clean. Look at your life in a new light. You don’t have to be the same person you were. The person who was too scared to try new things. You don’t have to be that. You, too, could be a failure.

For spring, go try something new and fail at it. Fail miserably, but keep at it. Fail so bad that people (those people who never try new things) talk about you behind your back. And then, fail some more. Fail until you don’t care that you’re failing. And eventually, you’ll get it.

Or maybe you won’t.

And is that really such a terrible thing? To not be able to do something? To try and not succeed.

I’m a writer, therefore, a professional failure. I’m an expert at failure and, trust me, the more you do it, the less scary it is. Now, I’ve even branched out. Instead of just failing at writing, I’ve failed at a whole host of other things (running, ukulele, surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, parenting, the list goes on and on). There’s no limit to the things that you can fail at if you really put your mind to it.

Failure has become comfortable to me, like that feeling of pulling up to my house on a dark night and seeing the lights are on, signs of life. I can sit in my car and imagine inside: my children’s laughter, the smell of supper cooking on the stove, the chaos of the day strewn about. Failure is as much a part of the fabric of my life as all of that. I say it every day: I can’t do it…yet.

It’s my passion, it's my goal. Fail at as many things as I possibly can. The sky's the limit.

8 comments:

  1. Just stopping by from Janet Reid's blog, to wave a paw and say hi, Hollie!

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  2. Hi Hollie, hopping over from the Reef. Lovely post. Accepting failure is a good lesson to teach our children. Try until you know you don't like it.
    Personally I like to experiment in the kitchen, but only when we have guests. Sometimes it's really bad and we have lots of laughs. Other times is fantastic and everyone wants the recipe.

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    1. That's awesome! I'm never brave enough to experiment with guests! I always use the kids as guinea pigs!

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  3. What a great healthy attitude! It's something I have to really try to work on. My partner is amazing at trying new things and not caring how it turns out, but I am a terrible comfort-zone-lurker.

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    1. Dude, me too! Getting my writing rejected over and over (and over!) has really done wonders for me. It's really been a blessing!

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  4. I believe in failure. If we succeeded at everything we ever tried to do, we'd end up bored to tears, there would be no challenge, no anticipation, no sense of accomplishment above and beyond a "well, that's only what I expected." I know a writer, (Jessica Lahey) who wrote the book "THE GIFT OF FAILURE." She's a MG teacher and has the experience of seeing it first hand, how it hones skills and brings satisfaction after failing, and then succeeding. Anyway, I'll hop off the box now. Visiting from QOTKU blog - if you hadn't already guessed!

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    1. What a great title! I'll have to check that out. Sounds like my kind of book!

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