October 12. “Success is often nothing more than moving from one failure to the next with undiminished enthusiasm.” (Winston Churchill)

The most difficult time to maintain enthusiasm is in the face of failure. It is when we have tried, and failed, that the wind is most taken from our sails. We can often find ourselves in the doldrums, drifting through our days. But, it is precisely at that time that we need to find the wind within and fill our own sails with a breath of enthusiasm.

It’s easy to be enthusiastic when things are going our way. When the sun is on our face, and the wind is at our back, we can make great headway through life. We need do nothing more than trim our sails to progress to our goals. Sadly, though, those times never last long. Soon enough we find ourselves needing to tack through shifting breezes, or find a way around a strong head wind. It is then that we must become our own source of enthusiasm.

Churchill reminds us that to be successful we cannot fall in the face of failure. We cannot let one defeat be the end of us. To succeed, we must prevail, and to prevail we must pick ourselves up and stay in the fight.

Today my reflection is on my own source of inner enthusiasm. Today I am thinking about how I can always be about applying that enthusiasm to help myself navigate through life’s failures on toward my success.