Sounds pretty boastful, doesn’t it?  Just keep reading, I think you’ll understand.  Failure is a perception. Let me share a few examples:  I have been married three times.  The first two ended in divorce, the third is still going strong after 18 years.  I left a secure job after 12 years to open a gift shop.  After three years, I realized it was not sustainable and had to close it.  The change of pace from corporate America to entrepreneurship revealed a more creative and independent me.  Some people might look at those examples and see failure, I see them as pieces of a puzzle.

We are all puzzles and life hands us the pieces with every opportunity, relationship, missed opportunity, and interaction.  If we look at those pieces and see part of ourselves in them and how they can fit into the bigger picture that completes us, we can learn invaluable lessons.  Many times, we worry and “what-if” a situation to death, never making a move or changing the situation we are in.  Without change, there can be no growth. Without growth, there can be no new pieces to the puzzle. Without new pieces, the puzzle will never be complete.  To me, this is the definition of a life unfulfilled.

I may have taken too many chances and they may not have turned out the way I planned, but my puzzle is that much closer to being complete.  As a result of my decisions, I have learned who I am, what I like and don’t like, what I will accept and what I will not tolerate.  Because my choices didn’t work out the way I planned, I am a better version of myself.  I don’t look back with regret, I look forward with intention.