Life isn’t fair, so don’t expect it to be

Sometimes, things will not go your way, even when it should have. It doesn’t matter that you put in hours of work, did the research, made the connections or followed the instructions to a “T,” sometimes you will not win. And it will be devastating. There aren’t many worse feelings than when you know that you’ve done all in your power to accomplish something, and it remains out of reach. But disappointment is a part of life. When this happens, and it will, all you can do is try another approach or change targets. Many years ago, I thought I was a football player. I wrapped a lot of my sense of self up in the persona of being an athlete, so when Georgetown College offered me a scholarship to play, I was thrilled. Twelve months later, after two knee surgeries and a failed comeback attempt, I found myself with no scholarship, no spot on the roster and a 2.0 GPA. I had to reinvent myself at that point, and it was a painful process. Decades later, when I first tried selling a book, I submitted it to twenty-one publishers. Most didn’t even respond, but those that did passed. This was disappointing, to say the least. Something I had put so much of myself into was unwanted. But all I could do was keep working and hope for a better outcome on the next project. I’m not saying that I did everything possible to achieve success in either of these examples, but it devastated me non-the-less. Failure is as much a part of life as success. We must learn from them and move on. Muscles have to break and tear before they grow back better than they were before. Heat tempers steel. We are all strengthened by being tested. Don’t falter when it doesn’t go your way and keep heading down your path.