Fruitful Failure

 Are you ready for early morning bus stop monitoring, afternoon car-rider lines, and Friday night lights? While August marks the beginning of a new school year and the start of football season, it's also the first issue in volume 13 of Woodstock Family Life, and our staff is excited to continue its now 13-year tradition of providing a convenient list of local high school football schedules on pages 20-21 that you can cut out and put on your fridge next to your child's latest art creation or favorite take-out menu. 

Speaking of school and football, I was thinking about how different they are, yet each offers many opportunities for learning and growth. And while we often celebrate a team's victories or the day students walk across a stage to collect their hard-earned diplomas, the struggles and failures they must overcome to achieve those accomplishments are not something we like to spotlight.

Many even become paralyzed by the fear of failure, so they're afraid to take risks. Georgia entrepreneur Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, grew up learning a positive perspective on failure from her dad:

"My father wanted us to try everything and feel free to push the envelope. His attitude taught me to define failure as not trying something I want to do instead of not achieving the right outcome."

When we achieve our goals, we gain confidence and learn what we're capable of. But when we fail, we master the necessary lessons that become stepping stones to a more fruitful life. So, in essence, failure is just success in progress. How 'bout them apples?

Have an amazing August!