When #FAIL comes your way, #ENCOURAGEMENT is an anti-dote

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I am amused whenever I see a failwhale photo flash on my screen.  Not that I would like a failwhale to happen.  I am a Twitterholic, and I really don't like it when Twitter is down.  However, the failwhale logo represents something more, something worth talking about. But before I get distracted talking about a Twitter  failwhale, what I really want to talk about is our life's failwhales and how to overcome it. Let me use my recent life's failwhales as examples:


1. FailWhale No 1:  Fundrasing for Blogworld2011 - since I started blogging in 2006, one of my dreams is to be able to attend the blogworld conference.  I thought that this year I will be able to do it though a fundraising campaign.  But just as I launced the campaign on my blog, I got the news that my mom passed away. I flew back to the Philippines and stayed there for 10 days. The campaign was put on a back burner.  When I came back to Maui, life got so busy that I didn't have the time to work on the campaign.  BlogWorld2011's date is so close now that I don't think I'd make it.  #Failwhale! Am I bummed? Of course I am.  I had been wanting to attend this for a long time.  And  aside from the fact that I wanted to go to LA to attend Blogworld, another desire is to go to LA to visit my brother there while I am attending Blogworld.  It's a long story, but it's  a #fail for now.

2. FailWhale No.2: Applying to be a speaker at TEDxMaui 2011 - I don't know what possessed me to think that I am even worthy of applying to be a speaker at TEDxMaui.  But the thought never left my mind when I first heard of TEDxMaui,  so I did it.  I knew that if I didn't submit my "half-baked" application on the deadline, I would forever be wondering "what if".  I submitted my application the day before they announced the names of some of the speakers.  The next day, when I saw the list of speakers, I was so embarrassed that I had the "delusions of grandeur" to apply to be a speaker at TEDxMaui.  What medication I was on, I didn't know! Right now, it's a  #Fail. But then again, maybe not.  You want to know what the "big idea" I had for TEDxMaui? I wanted to speak about "ENcouragement" (the  TEDxMAui theme is "Courage To Dream"), which lead me to the conclusion of this post.

#ENCOURAGEMENT. - "When life thows you a #failwhale, #encouragement is your anti-dote.

Since I illustrated what a #failwhale is through my life's example, let me also illustrate what #Encoragement (or #EncourageWIN as I'd call it) is through my life's example.

1. #Encouragement -When I woke up this morning, I got a notification from KLOUT saying that Liz Strauss added me to her KLOUT list under GREAT MOMS.  Now if you know me well, you know that's one of the greatest compliment you can ever give me.  I love being a mom. That really is a my passion. And for someone like Liz Strauss to include me in a list of great moms is a huge encouragement to me. This made my day today which made those #failwhales easy to take.

Going back to the FAILWHALE - what I love about it is that it's the "little birds" that carrying the whale.  There's an insight to that. Think about it.  Those little birds are the encouragers in my life.  When the feeling of  "I am a huge failure (huge as in a whale)" comes to mind, the encouragements of  little birds can carry us along until we arrive at a #WIN.  Gotta love those birds!

So one more time: When life thows you a #failwhale, #encouragement is your anti-dote.



* Bonus: FUN WEBSITE FAILWHALE:  What  Is A FailWhale?