Wednesday’s Wisdom

“It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” ― J.K. Rowling

I was feeling like a bit of a failure this morning. I guess everyone has those thoughts sometimes… don’t they? I’ve done my best as a parent (this is where my thoughts were earlier) but if I could go back and do it all again I’d make several changes. I searched online for quotes about failure because I know there are loads of good ones – I’ve seen them before. After reading several of them I started feeling better. I think part of my problem is that I see failure as the end result rather than part of the process. Then it becomes my identity. It’s faulty thinking, I know, and I’m trying to change it but even that is a process – bear with me.

Does failure bother you? Do you find it easy to pick yourself up and try again? Is it possible to be a parent and not feel like a failure sometimes? I’d love to hear what you think.

If anyone else is having one of those days, here are a few more good quotes that might help:

“Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” ― Nelson Mandela

“When you take risks, you learn that there will be times when you succeed, and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” ― Ellen DeGeneres

“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.” ― Barack Obama

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” ― Beverly Sills

“Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” ― Oprah Winfrey

“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ― Michael Jordan

“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” ― Arianna Huffington

“Failure is success in progress.” ― Albert Einstein

“My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.’” ― Will Smith

“Courage allows the successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure. So that in the end, she didn’t fail at all.” ― Maya Angelou

I’m always reading something or other. Books, social media feeds, study notes, blogs and more. Recently I’ve become even more aware of how much wisdom I come across in what I read so I decided to share some of it with you. I’m honestly not sure how consistent I will manage to be with this or how long I’ll keep it up but I’m going to try. It’s all part of the growing I need to do.

Wednesday’s Wisdom

I’ve been thinking about this quote and other similar ones a lot over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been really struggling with my mental health on and off – feeling low and also anxious. I realise that I need to find happiness (or perhaps contentment is a better word) within myself and not expect or hope for others to make me feel that way. Happiness is an emotion that comes and goes and we can’t expect to be happy all of the time but contentment would bring peace.

When I was a child I had a little plaque with a quote by Mother Theresa on my wall. It said “If you don’t enjoy what you have how could you be happier with more?” For a long time I lived by that and I made the most of everything I had and didn’t feel the need for anything else. Something happened though and I started hoping and dreaming for a more fulfilling life – was that wrong? I don’t know. I guess I became dissatisfied with the way things were.

I’m still mulling this over I guess. I’m not sure what the right balance is. I don’t think it’s wrong to want more necessarily but I suppose I have to look to myself (or to God) for that and not to other people? What are your thoughts on happiness? How do you find happiness and contentment? Should we have any expectations around happiness coming from other people?

Wednesday’s Wisdom

Following on from yesterday’s post – I saw this quote a few weeks ago and saved it. Growth is important to me. Moving forward is important. The hardest part is working out who and where I want to be and what I want to do. What I do know is I want more. I am capable of more than this. I will prove that to myself.

Wednesday’s Wisdom

I don’t really have anything to add to this quote today. I think it says it all. Just be kind!

Wednesday’s Wisdom

This popped up on my Instagram feed recently and I really love it. I definitely have a tendency to ‘shrink’ myself or take a back seat or ignore my own feelings and desires in order to meet the needs of others. It’s a difficult one in some ways because I was brought up to think of others before myself and I still think there’s a lot to be said for that too. I guess there needs to be a balance though because constantly being ‘selfless’ actually causes resentment to build up when others don’t reciprocate.

What do you think of this quote? How do you find a healthy balance between allowing yourself to live fully and ‘bloom wildly without regret’ and considering others? I’m sure these are not mutually exclusive but there are definitely times when it’s a choice between the two in my opinion.

Wednesday’s Wisdom

I saw this quote online the other day and to be honest I had to Google ‘Will Rogers’ to find out who he was. For anyone else who doesn’t know apparently he was an American actor, newspaper columnist and social commentator who lived from 1879 – 1935.

I mulled over this quote for a little bit and decided that he makes a very good point. Sometimes I think I worry about being on the right track and headed in the right direction but that’s actually only half the battle. If you’re on the right track but you’re stuck in the same place and not moving forward then are you really in a better position? You’re not going to make any progress on your journey. If you’re on the wrong track but moving forward you can at least change tracks at a junction. It’s a bit of a random thought maybe but it got the cogs turning in my mind.

What do you think? Is it more important to be on the right track or to be moving forward? Does this apply in every situation? How does it play out in real life? Got any good examples?

Wednesday’s Wisdom

I may have mentioned this before but I love Bob Goff! I enjoy hearing him speak and reading his books. I think he has a great outlook on life and sounds like a lot of fun. I can’t imagine that Sweet Maria (his wife) is ever bored! 😂 If I could meet up with him for a day and just talk about life I think it would be such a lot of fun and so inspiring.

This quote kind of reminded me of when I read the Ikigai book too. For most of my adult life I’ve seen myself as a bit of a ‘Jack of All Trades’. Not that I did everything at once but I turned my hand to a lot of different jobs at home, at work and at church, not to mention in the community and basically wherever I could. I’m not an expert in anything really but I’m able to do lots of things, and I like to help out. I guess what I’ve realised though is that just doing what you’re able to do isn’t necessarily fulfilling so I’ve been trying for a while to figure out what I was made to do – and I think I’m getting closer to the answer. I loved this quote from Bob’s book as a reminder to do what I was made for and not just what I’m able to do.

What were you made to do? Do you feel like you’re already doing it and if so how does that feel? If you’re doing something that you’re able to do but doesn’t feel like what you were made to do what’s stopping you from changing course? If you’re working towards doing what you were made to do what does that mean for you?