In life, there will be times when dreams get shattered. That one thing you blindly believed was going to work out simply doesn’t. Most of us have been there — in a place outside our comfort zone, feeling lost and lacking the energy or self-belief needed to start again.
When something fails, you can give up, dwell on it, or learn from it and pursue your dream somewhere else. Failure can be painful, but it can also force you to look at your life differently. Sometimes the road you thought you were supposed to take simply isn’t the road you end up travelling.
In life, there will be times when dreams get shattered. That one thing you blindly believed was going to work out simply doesn’t. Most of us have been there — in a place outside our comfort zone, feeling lost and lacking the energy or self-belief needed to start again.
When something fails, you can give up, dwell on it, or learn from it and pursue your dream somewhere else. Failure can be painful, but it can also force you to look at your life differently. Sometimes the road you thought you were supposed to take simply isn’t the road you end up travelling.
The video above will hopefully inspire you to be yourself and pick yourself up after being knocked down, even when the blow makes it difficult to stand on your feet again.
For me, it is important to have something you love to fall back on — something that gives you courage and makes you want to believe again.
My life salvation has been philosophy.
Since I started studying the subject as a teenager, I have learned to be stronger. Philosophers live according to a set of values they believe in, and philosophy has always given me something to return to when life becomes confusing.
The book that first enlightened me in this way was an old copy of Goethe’s Faust. That book taught me to accept myself as I am. Trying to change who you are simply because you think you should be someone else is like trying to stop a river from following its course. It’s unnatural.
There was another book that taught me never to be a follower or simply follow the crowd.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach was just the reading I needed as a 16-year-old to find my voice in life. It made me think about the importance of being different, of looking beyond what everyone else sees and of finding your own direction.
Ironically, I recently saw a flock of seagulls flying low together. Afterwards, when they landed, one of them immediately took off again.
This time, she was flying on her own.
That is the seagull I think we should try to emulate — the one that is always prepared to take off again, even after a crash.
Perhaps that is what moving on really means.
Not pretending that nothing happened. Not forgetting the people or dreams that mattered to you. And not convincing yourself that failure doesn’t hurt.
It means accepting that something didn’t work, learning whatever you can from it, and then finding the courage to take off again.
Even if, this time, you have to fly on your own.
All pictures by Tim Ward
This article and video were also published in the Huffington Post USA edition
Reblogged this on Beholder of Beauty.
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Thanks for sharing and thank you for filming the video and taking the pictures.
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Love this so much, we must always take flight and everyone who has had success has also had failure, what makes those successful is the will to keep going, to understand what went wrong and to continue. Keep being amazing girl. Stunning photos too x
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Thanks Vicki, yesterday I read something and I actually thought about you ” as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”.
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