Live Life in Full Bloom: Keep Moving Forward
“We don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Walt Disney
I love this quote, which explains Walt Disney’s philosophy for how and why he and his team were able to entertain the world for generations, and have been responsible for countless childhood memories.
It's hard to believe that he wasn't always successful. The truth is, he was once fired from a Missouri newspaper for ”not being creative enough.” He also dropped out of school at a young age in a failed attempt at joining the army and one of his earlier ventures, Laugh-o-Gram Studios, went bankrupt due to his lack of ability to run a successful business.
Despite these early failures, he is now known as a pioneer of the American Animation Industry, and as a film producer he holds the record for most Academy Awards won by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations.
Although, maybe it is easy to believe that he failed before he became so outrageously successful, because we see this pattern with so many people who we now look to as ’genuises’ in their fields.
And according to Thomas Edison, who went through thousands of iterations to make this dream a reality after failing over 10,000 times trying to invent a commercial light bulb, ”Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
I'm a huge fan of Jay Shetty, and this clip shares one of his most powerful messages. He talks about many successful people who were far from being overnight successes and the impossibility of anyone being an actual ’overnight success.’
Shetty reminds of that the dictionary definition of failure is ”lack of success, ” which doesn't put any value in learning or growth much like today’s society, often obsessed with winning. He points out that a person who never failed never tried anything new.
That to me is what “living life in full bloom” is about. It’s about trying new things and embracing rather than being afraid of failure.
We teach this to our children, and want them to take risks, have a growth mindset, and think critically, but sometimes we forget that as adults we are all still learning, and that it’s a beautiful thing to take a chance and try something new, regardless of the outcome.
Like Albert Einstein said, ”failure really is just success in progress. If you’d rather not fail, you will probably never succeed.”
I have this clip from Kid President that I share with my students who sometimes need a ’pep talk’ to persevere, but honestly, it inspires me too. He talks about Michael Jordan, who was at one time cut from his high school basketball team but didn't let that stop him from playing the game.
Jordan has stated, ”I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
And as Kid President says, ”If Michael Jordan gave up, there would be no Space Jam and I love Space Jam.”
Stephen King has had hundreds of books published and has the distinction of being the one of the best selling authors of all time. His first book, the sensational thriller, Carrie, received 30 rejections, causing him to give up and throw it in the trash. Luckily his wife took it out of the trash and encouraged him to resubmit it!
Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, and Stephen King are only a few examples of famously successful people who failed first. Find an inspiring list of 50 here!
Which is your favorite example or quote that reminds you to keep moving forward and live life in full bloom?
Thank you so much for visiting the blog today. I hope you found this post worthwhile. I truly appreciate your time and attention.
I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment, message or email and I will be sure to get back to you in a timely fashion.
Yours truly,
Jennifer
“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand.”
– Oprah Winfrey
ps. If you would like to share inspiring stories like the ones you read about here to inspire children you might want to take a look at this kit.
pps. For more about living life in full bloom you might enjoy this book.
