The year was 2015 and change was on the horizon for me at my job. The landscape I had known in the company I worked at was about to shift and I was intent on shifting with it. Like a wave rushing to the shoreline, I needed to move with the tide quickly; or so I thought. A downsize was imminent and a vacancy was existent, and for me to exist; like the wave, I needed to flow swiftly towards the shoreline where the vacant prize lay.
In a few days subsequent I would learn that not every wave reaches the shore. The vacancy would not be mine. I remember seeking the person entrusted to give in-depth feedback on interview performance. ‘You did not make the grade’ were the only words proffered, but the singular memory entrenched was... you are a failure! I exited with grim circumstance. At that time, it seemed that job was the only ticket to survive in that environment. I couldn’t see beyond and I lacked a larger vision for my life. The word ‘failure’ had overcome me.
It’s taken some time, but the lesson has thankfully come. In the words of Les Brown, “every setback is a setup for your comeback”. You see in life my friends, sometimes you have to go back in order to step forward. Just as the arrow can only be propelled forward by first being pulled back, so too the wave is also pulled back from the shoreline. Then before you even realize, as it recedes, the momentum of another pushes it forward again. Do not let failure overcome you for it is never here to stay.
If you are experiencing gloom and doom now, I want to tell you to shake up your mind from what you perceive as grim circumstance. Shake it off for there is no such thing. As George Bernard Shaw said “people are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are those who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them”.
So create your own circumstance, make your own shoreline. Not because the tide sent you to one means it’s yours to settle on. Not because the tide sent you in a direction means it’s yours to follow either. Don’t simply exist but truly live! So many persons go through their entire life existing in a job that does not inspire them. While it’s not the case for all, don’t let it be you. Create your path, and know that while it will undoubtedly be blessed with failure, true success lies in how you react to failure. Failing at something does not make you a failure, you only fail when you stop trying.
I encourage you to keep going. I encourage you to pick it back up. That dream, that wish, that goal. That talent you have placed on the shelf that collects the most dust. Pick it back up and ACT. You lack no ability. Believe you can, for it is in the belief that you cross your shore.