“And it was only when I was trying to unthread that that I finally began to comprehend the strange and unlikely psychological connection in our lives between the way we experience great failure and the way we experience great success. So think of it like this: For most of your life, you live out your existence here in the middle of the chain of human experience where everything is normal and reassuring and regular, but failure catapults you abruptly way out over here into the blinding darkness of disappointment. Success catapults you just as abruptly but just as far way out over here into the equally blinding glare of fame and recognition and praise. And one of these fates is objectively seen by the world as bad, and the other one is objectively seen by the world as good, but your subconscious is completely incapable of discerning the difference between bad and good. The only thing that it is capable of feeling is the absolute value of this emotional equation, the exact distance that you have been flung from yourself. And there’s a real equal danger in both cases of getting lost out there in the hinterlands of the psyche.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, Success, failure and the drive to keep creating
It’s 1 : 05 PM on day 1349 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, pray, read Psalm 36, feed myself boiled egg and bran flakes for breakfast, go visiting, publish my Disability of the Day feature and promote my Eradicate AIDS campaign – still on $802.85 but I’m not worried because I know that God put this campaign in my heart and wants it to succeed.
Recently I watched Success, failure and the drive to keep creating – a Ted Talk in which Elizabeth Gilbert talks about success, failure and returning to what you love to do when all else fails –I could relate to this talk when I fail I look around and go what next and when I succeed I think how do I top that I know that when I’m disoriented by success or failure in the future I will take Elizabeth Gilbert’s advice and return to doing what I love. Watch Success, failure and the drive to keep creating below: