It’s early afternoon and I’m still in my pajamas.
I can’t stop sighing while I look out my window at the season’s last (let’s hope) snowstorm. My repeated sighs have nothing to do with the thought of shoveling and everything to do with a personal challenge. 
It may sound corny, but I really do believe that any perceived mistake, set-back, or challenge, is just a learning opportunity.
But for the sake of discussion, let’s say there are failures. To me, they’re still an opportunity to learn from and do better next time. I can’t stop sighing because I’ve been so excited about a dream of mine to create a Museum of Inspiration and Humanity. I’ve even started to talk about it with friends and family. I wrote about it on this very blog. I’ve given a talk about the Museum and had a page on my website about it. I surprised myself by returning to the oh-so-annoying Facebook to create a Museum of Inspiration and Humanity corporate page.
Months ago I checked to see whether there was a Museum of Inspiration and Humanity out there. And then a friend gently let me know that she thought she saw that a Museum of Inspiration already existed. I checked and there’s a Museum of Inspiration. Honestly, it was a bit a deviation from my true path that I was more scared of doing than creating an inspiring museum. But that’s another blog post.
Am I chickening out or is this not something to pursue now?
Not sure but I decided to unpublish my corporate Facebook museum page. I removed the dedicated page and links from my website. And, I’m pretty close to crying. Now, here’s the thing about the feeling that I failed at this dream.
#1 I didn’t fail. I had a great idea. More importantly, it’s exciting that for the first time in my life, I had any idea at all. I never used to be able to have ideas or dreams. Making some big changes in my life created the opportunity for me to see possibilities rather than problems so it’s all good.
#2 Whoever implements this idea first, really doesn’t matter.
#3 As my friend said, maybe this will challenge me to inspire through some other means.
Still, I started to feel embarrassed that I’ve been talking about this idea so freely.
But then I remembered how I never used to put myself out there. I never would have risked sticking my neck out because of my fear of looking stupid, making a mistake, getting laughed at, or experiencing a failure.
As bummed as I feel today, I’m glad that I pursued this, and let others see what mattered to me, even if it did last for only a few months. There are other ways I can take this idea. Oh, some form of this idea will be created by me one day. It was interesting that when I opened WordPress today, the blog of the day started with this Thomas Edison quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”