Facing Disappointment, Setbacks & Failures

Hey friends--

I've recently been reading the book "Never Give Up" by Joyce Meyer and it's been so inspiring to me.  Sometimes we just need a little pep talk after a failure or setback and this book is just that. I want to share a little passage from it with you, because I think stories like this are so cool.. so here it is!

" Henry Ford, who invented the automobile, went broke five times before he succeeded in business. The great dancer and movie star Fred Astaire took a screen test at MGM studios in 1933. A studio memo reported he was slightly ball, could not act, and could dance a little. 

The family of Louisa May Alcott, the great author who wrote the popular book Little Women, thought she should abandon of the idea of being a writer and become a seamstress instead.

A newspaper fired Walt Disney for lack of ideas, and he went bankrupt several times before building Disneyland.

Enrico Caruso's parents believed a voice teacher who said he had no future in music- he simply could not sing at all. He did not believe the teacher and became one of the most famous opera singers in the world

Theodore Roosevelt suffered the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day in 1884 before he became a war hero and a very effective president of the United States.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was often asked to not return to churches after preaching in them once. When he preached on the streets, townspeople kicked him out. When he preached in a meadow, people turned a bull loose on him. But later, because he refused to give up, he preached in a pasture and ten thousand people came to hear him.

The story of Abraham Lincoln also amazes me. In the face of many defeats, he had reason to believe that there was no way he could succeed in life or be president of the United States. At twenty two years old, he failed in business. One year later, he ran for the legislature and lost. When he was twenty four, he experienced a second business failure. At twenty six the woman he loved passed away, and he suffered a nervous breakdown the next year. When he was twenty nine, he lost another political race, and at thirty four he made an unsuccessful run for Congress. At thirty seven, he did get elected to Congress, only to be defeated again two years later. At forty six, he lost his bid for Senate, and the next year, he failed in his attempt to become vice president. When he was forty nine, he was defeated for the Senate again. He had four sons, but only one lived to adulthood. But, at fifty one years of age, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States, and successfully led the country through one of it's most difficult periods. Many people would have said, "No way", but not Lincoln. He never gave up."

...

I'm pretty sure we've all been there. We've all not met a goal, endured setbacks and disappointments, faced a failure, it can be so discouraging to get up the next day and try again but that's what we're called to do. No matter how many times you've failed, don't quit your daydream. Don't lose your passion and your fire. Find your inner strength to carry on and try again. If we can learn to really believe in ourselves and our vision, we can push through any defeat. We will always face negativity. There will people that have negative things to say about you and and your dreams, but your journey is your journey, it's not for everyone else. It's not even for everyone else to understand. Encourage your loved ones to pursue their hopes and passions as well. A lot of times while we're lifting others, we're being lifted as well and we don't realize it until our dream is unfolding right in front of us. 

I believe in you. I don't care how far from your goal you think you are, I believe you can achieve it .. if you never give up and if you keep your chin up along the way!

Here are some quotes that encourage and inspire me when I'm feeling defeated:

* You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.

- Maya Angelou

* I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become."

- Carl Jung

* She was unstoppable, not because she did have failures or doubts, but because she continued on despite them.

- Beau Taplin

* Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.

- Mary Anne Radmacher

* Don't be scared of all the no's you're going to get. No one is getting a yes all of the time- even the most successful people have been told no again and again. 

* Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

- Dalai Lama

* At the end of the day, you can't regret it if you were trying.

- Kid Cudi

* Why worry? If you have done the best you can, worrying won't make it any better. If you want to be successful, respect one rule.. NEVER LET FAILURE TAKE CONTROL OF YOU. Everybody has gone through something that has changed them in a way that they could never go back to the person they once were. Relations are like electric currents, wrong connections will give you shocks throughout your life, but the right ones will light up your life.

- Leonardo Dicaprio

* Sometimes carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.

- Albert Camus

Christina xx