Finger Posts On The Road To Success

We are big quote people. Sometimes we even Google one in a given situation for encouragement, motivation, or just plain fun (nerdy, we know). So when we come across a really good one, it sticks with us. And if it’s by the great C.S. Lewis, weeeell that doesn’t hurt either. For instance, check this one out.

“Failures, repeated failures are finger posts on the road to success. One fails forward toward success.” – C.S. Lewis

Today, that one jumped out at us like a pogo stick on a trampoline. We are in the middle of wedding season and that usually means 14-hour work days and a lot of waking up in the middle of the night because we just remembered something else we need to do tomorrow. And if you’re anything like us, when your mind is so overloaded with what needs to be done, you tend to let a few things slip through the cracks.

On top of that, we are just in our second year of full-time wedding photography. We are still figuring some things out as we go! We find ourselves being perfectionists about everything and wishing we had known “that” thing all along or not believing it took us thiiis long to realize “that” was the best way to do “such-and-such.”

Is any of this ringing a bell? Maybe you have kids (we don’t yet – much respect to those that do) and you are just thinking that if you can keep them alive today you have done your job. Maybe you are in a job you despise and you feel like everyone else has already found their true calling. Maybe you feel like you have so many arguments with your spouse that nobody could possible be arguing more than you guys.

Well then, just like us, this quote is for you today. We want to be the first to give you permission to fail today. Failure is ok. Yikes that’s hard to say! No one wants to fail, right? And hey, if you look at everyone’s Facebook and Instagram feeds, you might think you are the only one with problems in life. But that’s not real life. Real life is dealing with people who are upset at you. Real life is trying for ten minutes to come up with something positive to say on Instagram because life today was not as good as you want it to sound.

And that’s ok. It’s ok to fail. It’s ok to fail as long as you do one thing: learn from it. As C.S. Lewis might say, “Fail forward.” Friends, we only get to live life once. Let’s give ourselves permission to make mistakes. Let’s commit to following those finger posts and learning from those mistakes. And let’s fail forward toward success!