– Neale Donald Walsch
I forget what book I was reading, and this was years ago, but they used the term failing forward. If I ever find it, I’ll come back and update this blog.
As long as you are moving forward and pushing past your comfort zones and embracing new experiences, as a human being you will “fail” or make mistakes at some point. We are all human. We may not get exactly what we want, but that isn’t the point. We often get more than what we would get if we did nothing. Keep going. You will learn. You will be able to accomplish and experience way more in life if you embrace the concept of failing forward.
Nothing is really a failure… is it? As long as you reflect, learn, recalibrate, and move forward with that new information, it certainly isn’t a failure in my mind. This is how we get really really good, at what we do.
What are we doing?
We are advocating for our children. Learning how to navigate the system and not lose ourselves in the process.
There is a cooking show my family and I were recently watching. The person really liked the quote, “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone”. I like that quote too.
In my early years, I spent a lot of time working with seniors. I loved working with that age group. I could put people in two categories. There were people who were miserable and people who were at satisfied. The people who were miserable never stopped talking about all the things that people did to them. They blamed everyone for the horrible life they felt they had. Then there were the people at peace. These people would often talk about how they helped people. I will always remember, there was a teacher, and she would talk about her students and how they had come back later to find her and tell her how much of an impact she had made on them.
One thing that is common in both groups is that people often talk about regret. I don’t want to look back at my life and feel regret. Wishing I took the leap, but didn’t.
I have zero problems with falling flat on my face.
I don’t want to just fail forward. I want to do it while running.
Anyone who sticks their neck out for other people, to have other people see what they are doing, is a risk taker. Taking on leadership roles puts you in the ring. People will have their opinions about you. Some people will agree with you. Some people won’t. Cool either way.
We do the best we can. It doesn’t mean we will necessarily achieve our goal, but we will have tried. We can look our kids and tell them, I tried. I did everything I could do.
Right now, our education is already in a crisis and based on what school districts are telling us at budget meetings, the budget cus are going to intensify in the coming years.
Maybe all of our advocacy efforts wont achieve exactly what we are hoping for, or maybe we will move the needle. Regardless, we do our best, and we let it go. We know we tried, and we fail forward and keep on trying.
This work isn’t easy. We need to help each other. Show your support for the brave people who are taking up leadership roles and willing to take the risk of failing forward. I am watching many people step up for their community.
Attend a rally. Email your MLA.
Make this a part of your story that you tell years later.
At least you will know what happened when you gave it your best. You won’t look back in life and wonder….what if?
“Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch