The Correlation Between Great Failure and Great Success

Since I’ve began college I have been very intrigued by TED Talks. I love these as motivational tools and good source of outside thinking and good information. I was watching a few videos when I came across one lady by the name of Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth is an author known mostly for her book called EAT PRAY LOVE. She goes on to describe her situation when trying to get published. She spent 6 years as a young aspiring author trying to get published only to get denied over and over again. This constant feeling or rejection picked at the motivation and determination to work on her works. She had many thoughts of doubt about her writing career and even thought seriously about putting away the pen and concluding her attempts at getting published. Many Runners feel this same way. Runners that get stuck in a slump, or can’t seem to stay healthy often consider their running careers. Almost all runners have this fear of never getting to where they want to be, much like Elizabeth. She tells her audience that there was only one thing that trumped her fear of never making a book that would be published, and that was her love for writing. I think many of us runners get too caught up in results. If only we could get back to our passion for running and stop worrying about PRs and splits, who knows what our outcome could be. if Gilbert ended her career as an author, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sell more than 10 million copies of her books worldwide, Become one of time magazines most influential people, or inspire the film EAT PRAY LOVE with her talent. If we allow our fear of not being up to our expectations block us from running at all, we have no chance of reaching our goals at all. As long as she can, Gilbert vows to write more and more books, knowing that many will fail and some will succeed, but never losing her passion for writing. This Passion is something that we as runners should keep close to us. We will surly have some great failures, but it will make us appreciate the successes that much more.