What Happens When You Fail Enough?

Two of my books that have been in the works for years came out today.  The first is a free book full of advice for teachers.  The second is a collection of my songs for elementary and middle school chorus.

 

I’m always thrilled and scared when new products are made available to the public.  I’m always hopeful that people will get excited by them.  I’m always fearful that no one will care and the effort will be a failure.

 

I’m not just advertising for myself tonight.  I want to talk about this “trying” and “failing” thing.  I’ve talked about failing before, but this time I have some good news for young people.

 

When I was a young person, I felt like I had to be so careful with my creations, that they had to be perfect, because otherwise I might not get famous before I was fifty.  Well, now I’m fifty.  And I am not famous.

 

So what am I going to do?  Whine about how I have to be famous before I’m seventy?  What a laugh!

 

I have nothing to lose, and no more time to lose it.  This isn’t the time to be careful.  It’s the time to throw everything on the table, to go like I’ve never gone before. 

 

So here’s the good news, kids.  When you’re young, failure seems like the most awful thing in the world.  It hurts like hell, and it’s hard to get back on the horse.  But when you’re older, failing starts to get fun.

 

That’s right.  You don’t have to worry about it any more.  As soon as you fail, it just means you get to try again.

 

Failing starts to be fun!  You can’t wait to throw something else out the window to see if it floats.  And that’s how you have to live in order to be creative and not go crazy.

 

Some people think God is going to save us with a miracle.  I think God has given us everything we need to save ourselves, and we have to believe in that.  We have to believe that we have what we need, we have to try things, and fail, fail, fail.

 

If we can get past our terror at the consequences of failure, we’ll realize that trying and failing is better than not trying.  We can give it all up, go out there and start failing, and we’ll like it.  No matter what happens, if we’re giving it our all, it’ll be fun!

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News from a Jazz Musician Who Writes Books

You can find my two new books at the Adam Cole Works store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Two new articles this week:

 

Adam Cole is a Jazz Musician Who Writes Books. Fantasy author, music educator and performer, Adam chats weekly on the subject of listening, creativity and living your best life. To get a free book on marketing tips for passing out fliers, getting on your own radio show, and writing a blog people will read, please go to www.mymusicfriend.net and subscribe.

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