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A Post About A Failure I Will Make Tomorrow...That Feels Like Success...But Is Failure...Or success...I'm So Freakin' Confused.

stevenwoodPosted for Everyone to comment on, 5 years ago5 min read

CHAPTER 1 - So Tomorrow I Will Fail!


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This was not in my grand-plan, but alas a goal I wished to achieve will elude me by quite some margin. I always expected it, you see, I know me!

I entered the engagement contest awesomely titled THE BEAST! run by @merej99 and @lexikon082 as I loved the idea of what they were trying to achieve and I bloody love people who have community close to their hearts. If you do too, I strongly suggest you give some serious thought to casting a vote for @lexiwitness it is jointly run by the aforementioned awesometastical legendarians ((Yup! I'm making words up again, never-mind, let's move on))

So I hopped aboard the contest train at the very first stop, knowing it would be a mighty big ask to complete 7 posts and 500 comments when I had such a lot of the contest period blocked out for work and several other commitments, involving a night away from home and 2 nights when I would not be home for the entire evening and several workdays/nights at the beginning and the towards the end of the contest time-frame.

Still I held the faith, but I did not bank on the other self-defeating aspect that I should have always known would put paid to my finishing the requirements in the allotted time-frame.

My inability to ever shut-up, never stop talking and never EVER use ten words when 2462 will do the job just as well! :joy:

Just look at this post for example, you already know where it's heading...It could just as easily be summed up with...

I came...I commented...I failed!


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We could have all finished reading, went home early, grabbed a spot of dinner and went up to bed for an early night, right?

Ah! but where would we be without that oh-so-cliched and anticipated stevenwoodstyle moral at the end ((for those who manage to prop open their weary eyelids with matchsticks and stay awake that long))

So to get back on track...I have fallen short by quite a sizable margin, it seems I will not even be close to the finish line when most cross it, accomplished, triumphant joy etched onto their faces. I still have tomorrow, but alas I am awake at 5.30 and off to work for a 7am-7pm day-shift, which leaves me from 8pm till midnight, trust me it ain't gonna happen.

So yes despite secretly anticipating this result all along, I am majorly disappointed, but then after another moments though I have to wonder, am I really?


Chapter 2 - The sweet taste of success.


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Having said all that...I revisit in my mind my reasons for participating in the first place...

  • To show my support for a contest promoting engagement.
  • To meet new people on the platform.
  • To support a witness account who's intention is to make the platform awesome.
  • To truly engage with people I had never crossed paths with.
  • To talk to people about more than just the weather and that darn latest politician with a scandal now aired to the world.

Hmmm, check after check after check...A full house!

Well what do you know, my supposed failure resulted in me achieving every underlying objective I set off with the intention of achieving, this failure and success stuff is nowhere near as cut and dry as it seems, right?

You see, when it came to the comments, sometimes the comment only needed a sentence or two, but other times it needed 2000 characters+ ((embarrassingly enough)) to say what I needed/wanted to.

DISCLAIMER - To any of you whom have received one of my colossally, enormous comments that take 6 months and 47 pots of coffee to read, I sincerely apologize for any distress caused to you or those around you. Helplines have been setup and professional help is at hand!


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I have met many new and varied people through this contest and have had some pretty in-depth conversations on a plethora of subjects. I have enjoyed it immensely. In many ways despite my apparent failure, I have succeeded in far more ways than I ever anticipated.

I would not have felt true to my own integrity, had I tried to rush a comment and move on for the sake of the contest and I know this would not be what the creators had in mind when they conceived the contest.

So although I may lament my perceived failure a little tomorrow, I will also raise a glass to my success.

To those still in the contest, finish strongly, enjoy the new connections you have hopefully cultivated and always remember as you go forward within this FAB community what true engagement, really means :grinning:


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