What if I was the one to tell you that our failures and setbacks are something to celebrate just as much as any victory?
If you’re anything like me, freaking glory hallelujah that is good news, because let me tell you, I’ve faced my share of setbacks and failures.
In fact, for me, the last 16 months or so have been steeped in one seemingly failed effort after another. I’m not talking “there was a typo in my email” kinds of failures, I’m talking the megawatt kind of failures that leave me awake at night listening to symphony of my own sniffles and tears.
It hasn’t been pretty.
But
Beauty can be made from our ashes.
I must have needed a whole lot of ashes to make anything beautiful, because my Rome burned for a long, hot minute.
Today though, with just enough Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper and just enough perspective, I can see the ways in which those experiences refined and prepared me for the season that I am in now. It’s in the fire that we are forged.
Last week, a coworker asked me, “how are you so confident in meetings?”
I wasn’t really sure how to answer other than to think to myself … I don’t know if I am confident, I’ve just been through the fire.
In bladesmithing, after the metal has been forged in the fire and hammered and shaped (all of which sounds pretty painful if you’re the steel), there is another step in the process. The quench. In this process, the blade gets heated to a certain temperature one final time and then plunged into a vat of quenching liquid. This seals and hardens the blade so it does not fracture or chip when used.
Today, I can own my meetings, own my work, own my skill set, because it has been banged, bruised, and put through the fire.
I can speak knowledgeably about my field and my work, because I know what my steel can withstand.
So, if today you feel like you are in the fire, getting beaten and hammered, you are not alone. There is another in the fire with you. I know how hard it can be, and I’m with you. I’m here to celebrate and dance in the flames with you. From the ashes comes our beauty and strength. In the fire we are forged.