At first glance that old saw seems pretty trite. The sentiment is restated over and over with various combinations of words, applied to various pursuits, until we no longer hear the message behind it. It's pretty basic, though. To succeed, you only need to get up one more time than you fall down.
This blog post is me getting back up again after a six month fall-down. Life, crises, a disaster or two. . .does it really matter why I stopped? The longer I waited to post, the harder it was to get back on the horse and keep riding. But in the end, what matters is that I got back up again and am still pursuing my dreams and goals. Surprisingly, the fall-down turned out to be a major motivator to get my butt back in gear and put my money where my mouth is. Teach what I preach, walk the talk, and so forth and so on.
I started this blog last September on Debbie's birthday and, though no particular planning or effort on my part, I am coming back to it just a few days before my birthday. This one will be 48 and the clock is ticking toward 50. All of a sudden my goals have solid deadlines. (Well, some of my goals do. Some of them are farther reaching.) Somewhere in the past month or two, I looked at the calendar and freaked myself out. I don't have time to wallow around after falling, I need to get my feet under me, stand up, and start moving toward those goals. This time falling down served a purpose. It forced me to reexamine my goals and decide how important it was to me to reach them.
What goals do you want to keep on trying for?
3 comments:
They say you teach what you most need to hear. Well, after reading over the last half dozen posts, it would appear I need this 'try, try again' message quite badly. It's a little embarrassing to see how many posts I talk about this trying thing. As if it's a whole new topic each time. Well, if nothing else, y'all can see my repeated trying, right?
We all have stumbles - and life just gets in the way sometimes. The important thing is not to dwell on the stumble. Just acknowledge it, challenge yourself to do better, and move on. My goal is to get a synopsis and partial to my agent by September for my new book, and get another contract by this time next year!
The reason it's like a whole new topic each time is probably because you're in a different place each time and bring your experiences to the table, casting a different light on it at different times. Which means you're learning. (If it was the same each time you approached this subject, *then* you could worry.)
Like Nicole said, acknowledge the stumbles, learn from them, and move forward. (This, of course, is what I say, not necessarily what I do...)
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