Have you ever been successful? Sipped wine from the sweet cup of victory? Let me rephrase it and recentre the question have you ever fucked up and failed so spectacularly it taught you valuable lessons.
The school of hard knocks is real, and it builds character I know it sounds cliche but it is true. Look inside yourself, a lot of positive memories are those coming from bad days: crisis at work, failing a test at school. In retrospect, you analyse these failures and see where you went wrong. Now be honest with your self, how many good days taught you positive lessons?
This is why today I have got issues with content on Instagram in particular. Everything is so exquisite, but where is the burnt cake that came out of the oven? Or that stray hair that wouldn’t comb over properly? It seems a little tone-deaf with the public sentiment right now. At least on TikTok, you have people dancing in their lounge rooms wearing ugg boots without a care in the world.
On my podcast I ask my guests about failures all of the time and guess what they have all failed, some spectacularly and it drives them to be more successful. You see life is not about winning all of the time, the barometer of life is actually measured on how you rebound.
Want to see some proof, of where I get this information? Go watch Star Wars episode 4 the New Hope, or the Matrix or any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In fact, any movie they all follow the Heroes Journey or Monomyth which was described by Joseph Campbell in 1946. Every ordinary person is transformed into the hero after they rebounded and fought of the monster in the dark cave. It is in our collective psyche.
Now for my old man rant: get rid of participation trophies in school athletic carnivals. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s you only got a ribbon if you came 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Came 4th? Tough luck kid, find that 1% extra to push yourself next year. Take this loss on the chin, it will motivate you. Cue the Rocky Montage.
Viva la Revolution!
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