Monday, September 29, 2014

Motivational Monday 6 - Success, Failure, and What Really Counts


I am addicted to Pinterest. Seriously.

One of my favorite boards is my “inspirational” board. That one has a lot of inspiring messages that I like to look at when I’m feeling down and out. I really couldn’t pick my favorite quote, but I’ve noticed that I have a lot of quotes pinned by Churchill and Emerson. I might cover Emerson in a later post, but right now I want to discuss one of Churchill’s quotes.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

How many celebrities do we hear about in a year falling from their pedestal? Celebrities are the “idols” many people strive to be like. They’re rich, famous, usually have gorgeous spouses, and they’re rich (did I already mention that?). They are the epitome of successful. However, it is all-too common to hear about one celebrity or another losing control of their life. Success is not final.

Likewise, do we even have a number on the amount of successful people who started out as failures? JK Rowling was turned down several times before someone agreed to publish the Harry Potter series. Beethoven’s music teacher told him he was hopeless. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for lacking creative ideas. The list goes on and on! (And you would like to see a list of 20 famous failures, you can check it out here.) Failure is not final.

So if success and failure don’t count, what does? As Winston Churchill, another famous failure, says, it is “the courage to continue that counts.”

Whether you’re at the top of a mountain or the bottom of a ravine, know that where you are is not a guaranteed position. Everything worth having in life requires work and effort. Keep at it, and you’ll do and see and accomplish great things.

Cheers!


Molly

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