“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison
I’ll admit this hasn’t been a strong couple of weeks for me. It just seemed like I was witnessing and feeling a shot to the gut every time I turned around. At times, the abdomen shot wasn’t figurative as I stood over my toilet, struggling to keep down a bottle of water. Not even two days into the week I wrote this, I felt broken mentally and physically. The negativity that was fueling my days started wrecking my mind and thoughts that lay dormant came to the forefront – reminders of missed opportunities; potential dreams that’ll never be realized; the crushing heartbreaks. For several moments, I felt I had failed myself.
Thank God my mom was only an ear away to listen to my vocalized thoughts. And it was then that I had the reminder that I had truly failed myself right then and there by thinking of myself as a failure. The only failures in life are those who quit on themselves; the people who let their circumstances dictate their personal opinion of success. My mom’s words gave me a good kick in the butt with the talk that reminded me of simplicity of positive thinking breeding everything but failure. To succeed in life is to never look at yourself as a failure if you’re working toward your potential. Sometimes the path turns unexpectedly, or is full of a lot more bumps than one would expect, but to continue moving and never stopping is the true opposite of failure.
