That Failure Isn’t Forever

The list of ideas and to-do’s that’s in front of you is massive. Some are going to work. Some are going to flop. All are going to change over time. At first it’s intimidating, but there’s a strange comfort in knowing it. Nothing on that list is permanent or etched in stone.

Ryan Holiday shared the following (via Daily Stoic, “The Only Permanence Is Impermanence”):

Marcus Aurelius summed up life along similar lines: “Everything’s destiny is to change, to be transformed, to perish. So that new things can be born.” Nothing is permanent. Not failure. Not pain. Not fame. Not fortune. Not you. Not anyone.

So yeah, all of that stuff on our lists? It’s really going to change. Our job is to pin it down long enough to figure out what to do with it now. That’s the practice. And then, things are going to change and we’re going to adapt and change with them. That’s the practice in practice.

Some ideas will work out, others won’t. Some things that work will be awesome, then will fade. Sometimes there’s a global pandemic and the whole list ends up in the trash can for a while until we uncrumple it and start over.

So long as we’re here we’ve got work to do.

And if anything goes wrong? Dust off and get back to it. That failure isn’t forever.

And if anything goes well? Don’t get too comfortable. That isn’t forever either.

There’s a comfort in it. Back to work.