Thomas Edison's Lightbulb

Thomas Edison has always struck me as an interesting character. Rumour has it he only slept 4 hours a night, and often worked 2 -3 days straight. While most famously known as the inventor of the electric lightbulb, he took out over 1000 patents for inventions during his lifetime. No doubt, in today's lexicon, he would have been referred to as a workaholic, an obsessive, hell-bent on getting what he wanted.

Check out this quote below

Edison obviously had a 'different' way of thinking too, well, different from most of us. Can you imagine how many detractors he would have had? People telling him to 'give it up' and to accept that 'it isn't going to work' obviously had no influence on his output and determination. Luckily, Edison had a huge team working for him, a whole legion of scientists working together. Or was it luck? Edison would probably wouldn't have factored in luck to anything he did. By surrounding himself with like minded people, all moving towards a mutual goal, and with unrelenting persistence and passion, the results came, results which truly changed the world.

People like Edison are my heroes. They are not afraid to stand by their convictions, and make shit happen. They're unwilling to 'people please' and take bad advice from neigh-sayers.

Blanking out  these types of people in my life has not always been easy, and too often I've given up on something because I've taken on bad advice from people, while well meaning, who where not as informed as me. It's happened in sports, music, work, relationships, actually, just about every aspect of life. Some choices I now regret. But the past is the past, unalterable, and nowadays, with hindsight I can recognise my own mistakes as lessons learned. For me, this is a gift.

There is no failure, only feedback

Those of you familiar with NLP, and perhaps those who aren't have probably heard this before. It's a 'reframing' of what we consider the truth. NLP goes on to say that failure isn't something real, something tangible, but only a 'construct' in our minds. It's just a thought. With reframing, it does away with slapping a giant label on something that was not to our satisfaction. It allows us to see our actions as experiments, with the only result being feedback.

We've all seen babies learning to walk. They keep trying, over and over and over again until eventually they take their first wobbly steps. Soon enough they're walking. How do they do it? I suspect it's because babies haven't developed an ego yet, an identity which they cling their sense of self to. They literally don't have the ability of critical self judgement, and are unable to take on criticism. Anyways, how ridiculous would it be to call a baby a loser, or to quit trying after the 5000th failed attempt of walking on two feet? How come we can't be more encouraging and compassionate of ourselves?

What's this got to do with Gratitude?

For me, everybody, and yes, I mean everybody has something to offer, something to learn from, and a 100% unique perspective on life. True, some of these 'learnings' may be in what not to do, but nevertheless, they've provided an example I can draw from, learn from, provided I don't make the same mistakes. I thank these people.

Today's Gratitude List

1. I feel grateful for my stubborn, unrelenting drive to 'learn to walk'

If this one doesn't make much sense, see above. And take 'walk' as an analogy.

2. I feel grateful for all the people who have beaten out a path throughout history making my life smoother and easier.

3. I feel grateful for my all 'failures' and 'mistakes' for providing much needed lessons, and toughening me up.

4. I feel grateful for all the cheerleaders in my camp who've had my back during both the good and hard times.

5. I feel grateful for my desire to learn from everyone I meet, and grateful for those people who have come into my life.

I'll finish with this - A sneaky 6th one today.

If you've read this, or at least skimmed it, I feel grateful to you too. If this post provides one person, anywhere at anytime with even 1% of 'go forward' energy that'd make me happy. 

You can check out my first 3 days of my little personal challenge here

https://steemit.com/life/@steemmeupscotty/my-10-day-gratitude-challenge-day-1

https://steemit.com/life/@steemmeupscotty/my-10-day-gratitude-challenge-day-2-gold-plated-problems

https://steemit.com/life/@steemmeupscotty/my-10-day-gratitude-challenge-day-3-don-t-be-afraid-to-feel-freedom

And if you'd like to see an incredible example of unrelenting drive, passion and success, check out this youtube vid. You won't regret it

Arthur's Transformation

Cheers everybody - hope you've all had a great weekend.

@steeemmeupscotty