I have my own holiday.
No, really, I created it myself. January 12 of each year is either “January-teenth” or “Liberation Day.” I added it to my Facebook timeline in 2011, and the website reminds me of it, so it must be a real holiday, right?
Bad things happen to us all the time. Sad, frustrating, unjust, wholly- or partly-undeserved things. It won’t be reported on NPR’s Morning Edition, but when it happens to you, it impacts your world, throws you off track and whangs a big ol’ boo-boo on your ego. Nasty.
Doesn’t matter what happened to me, really. I’ve written about it elsewhere, but the short version is, I was demoted from my position without warning. I kept my same salary, and opted to continue with a position in the same department. It really felt like the end of the world.
And you know what? It was.
It was the end of one world and the beginning of another. But it marked the point where I took control of my destiny. Sure, it was painful and humiliating. Going back to work at the same place took lots of energy and a huge bucketful of denial.
That was the year, though, that I discovered self-publishing. And from there I set my sights on my business, Maximum Author Impact. And my courses I’m developing to help other authors market their books. Looking back, I’m glad it happened, but you know what they say about hindsight.
If you go looking for quotations to inspire you, you’ll find a lot of them that talk about how important failure is to the journey of success. But if we just accept failures and move on, they’re just bumps in the road. Use those failures–accept them–own them. Make them serve you by using them as an opportunity to improve your life or change your direction. And if you have a life-changing one (or even if you don’t), make it into a holiday and celebrate it annually. Honor your progress.
Celebrate your failures.