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                                             DO NOT BE AFRAID OF FAILURE.

BE TERRIFIED OF REGRET.

MY TAKE

Today’s quote comes from Ms. Deshauna Barber. She is a successful life coach and motivational speaker. From early on, she realized this had to be a way of life for her. After failing to win her state’s beauty pageant in six tries, she refused to give up and was crowned in 2016 as Miss D.C., then as Miss USA. She did this while studying for her degree and serving as a US Army Reserve Officer.

This quote resonated with me, for it represents one of two primary messages I try to convey through most of these postings: The first one being “Failure is just a stepping stone to success.”

You know why this message is so important? When we fail, this failure just tells us that we are trying something that perhaps we never did before, something new and interesting. We are opening doors to explore what is beyond. How exciting can this be?

This is what life is about: learning, trying, exploring, failing, getting up, regrouping, and trying again. It’s about laughing and crying. And also about having success and winning. A battle lost is just today’s setback; don’t let it shape your future and determine what your life will be. Accept it for what it is: an essential part of life’s lesson plan. Use what you learn from this setback, map your future moves, and go for the big prize. 

Regret, on the other hand, is the quiet, haunting voice of opportunities we let slip away. It’s the reason the subjunctive mood exists — those lines we repeat in our minds: “If I had done…”, “I could have…”, “I should have…”, “I might have…” 

But never did. 

If fear kept you from seizing past opportunities, don’t mourn the time that’s gone. It won’t return. Instead, look at your life now, where you are and what you can still accomplish. As long as you are alive, you can do. You can fight, you can try, you can fall and rise, you can move forward. 

In our most difficult times, determination and willpower carry each one of us further than we could ever expect.

Never doubt yourself.

And yes … the other message I often share? “Don’t ever allow someone else to think for you; your mind is your most precious asset. It is you.”

Take care, Be well!

                                



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