Failure, for you, is not a permanent state. (daily video)

It’s Saturday. Let’s take a moment, creative, to address a most important word in your arsenal.

Today, we’re talking about Failure.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back creatives. Ruthanne Reid, author and stroke survivor, here to help you get out of block and into a daily habit of creation. Today we're talking about a word that I don't like to use and I will explain why. It is the f word: failure.

The way English works is we tend to think of something that is a failure as a permanently failed thing. So a sule that fell has failed. It cannot be reinflated. An engine that has failed really can't be repaired. It's scrap. To be a failure is a permanent state.

That's why I don't like to use that word for most of our art because, you know, things can fail. You can have a novel blow up and you really don't know how to fix it. You you can have a sule fall and that feels pretty bad, but it doesn't mean that you're a failure as a chef. It means this souffle failed. You need to try again.

That's all, creative. This is really important. That novel you didn't finish, the contest you lost, the I don't know, you dropped out of college, whatever it was artistically that feels like you failed did not make you a failure because you are not in a permanent state of failure. You can try again. You can go to a different school. You can enter a different contest. You can write a new thing. You can draw a new thing. You at no point are a permanent failure. Not as long as you're alive.

Too many of us use this word like a club and we hit ourselves with it all the time. I failed. I'm a failure. I blew it. I just I can't make it. The thing doesn't work. It never works. I never finish anything. Stop. Stop. Breathe. You are not a failure. You are alive. You actually have the opportunity to move forward or change direction or do whatever you want to do because you're not in a permanent failed state.

Understanding this is crucial because why would you move forward if you don't think that you can? You are not a failure. I don't care what blew up in your life, creative. As long as you are still here, you can keep moving forward. Make changes. Adjust. That means you're not a failure. It is not a permanent state. Sit down with me and with courage together, let's make something new.