"Everything looks like failure in the middle."
(Rosabeth Moss Canter)
It's so easy for someone standing on the outside to judge us. Our actions. Where we are. What we're doing.
I liken this to someone walking into the room as I'm working on a 10,000 piece puzzle. I have some of the borders, some of the middle--maybe I'm about three thousand pieces in. With pieces scattered all over the table--no rhyme or reason--it's easy for someone else to see a mess. To think: "Wow. She's getting nowhere."
But I'm making progress. Bit by bit. Slow and steady.
And, when the puzzle is complete, everything will have come together and it will all make sense.
Life is that puzzle.
We pick up pieces, try to connect them to something else. Maybe they fit. Maybe they don't.
To the outsider, we are failing all over the place. Or maybe we can't even see the bigger picture. We feel like we're not making connections, everything is falling through, nothing has worked according to plan, and we wrap ourselves in the idea that we're failures.
Not finishing that book on time.
Losing a book deal.
Going out of print.
Low sales rankings.
Not getting into the college of our choice.
Closing the doors of that family business.
Lay-offs.
Career changes.
Canceling the trip.
Miscarriages.
Wayward kids.
Having to push back retirement.
EVERYTHING looks like failure in the middle.
Keep pushing forward. Push with the end in mind--that tomorrow can be better than today, no matter the circumstances.
That incomplete puzzle tells only half the story.
Because everything looks like failure in the middle.
Now go Be Brilliant.
~Katie~
