You %$&# Up. So What. Begin Again.

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

– Marilyn Vos Savant

Several years ago, I made a goof that, literally, if I’d stayed in the muck of it, I would have diverted on a path that would have lead me straight to hell. Maybe that sounds like an exaggeration, but truly it’s not. I remember conversing with a friend at that time, crying, wallowing in the mistake of a life time, and she turned to me and said, “You %$*&# up. So what. Begin again.”

A mixture of feelings flooded me when she said that–didn’t she care for me?–but what she said was exactly what I needed to hear.

I needed to change how I looked at the situation. Yes, I had screwed the pooch in a way that was devastating and heartbreaking. Very true. But I still had breath in my body and legs and arms that moved and a mind that somewhat worked (I’m grateful to say that my mind works way better now).

I was definitely defeated, very much so, and I felt it in every cell of my body, but giving up because of my mistake would have ruined everything, all possibility of life changing…of me changing.

Even though the mistakes I make today are certainly less life changing compared to that day, my giving up or not is still as vital as it was then.