By Renea Dauntes
Sometimes the success you seek is not the success you achieve. Last year I ran a campaign to be the mayor of Amarillo. Technically, I was not the victor in that race. I didn’t get the most votes, nowhere near it actually, but to me that campaign was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Of course, I learned a great deal about the city I’ve learned to love. But beyond that, there are seven people that I may not have met if I hadn’t ran at that particular time, in my particular way, for that particular position. No I didn’t get the outcome that I was originally seeking, however, the result was better than I could’ve imagined. These individuals have literally improved the quality of my life. I’ve had nights filled with laughter, trips to see incredible concerts, amazing friends gathered around delicious food, and opportunities to help that I may not have had time for if I had won the race.
This has been a recurring theme in my life. My education (for both degrees) didn’t end with the majors with which I’d started. I’ve had various careers that most spent lifetimes in, they were more like stepping stones for me. Each time, I found a better end than I was expecting.
As we go into Thanksgiving, I encourage you to examine your “failures.” Did you learn a better way to do something? Find a new path to take? Meet people along the way that can now help you succeed? If everything we tried worked out the way we originally intended, our lives would surely be far less rich.
Enjoy each other, make mistakes, try new things, push boundaries, and delight in unexpected successes.
Dauntes/Campaign