Sometimes we need the world to save us from what we want

One of my favorite questions is “What’s your best failure?”

Meaning, what’s the failure that led to a bigger success than you would have gotten if you didn’t fail in the first place?

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Douglas Adams

I think about this when someone gets laid off and ends up with the dream job that they didn’t know to go looking for. Or when a friend gets broken up with and then finds their future spouse. Or even in little things, like when one of my kids spills juice on the couch and while cleaning it I find the lost remote.

Sometimes we need the world to save us from what we want.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

George Bernard Shaw

When something goes wrong for me, I try to remember that it might be the world saving me from what I want. If I look hard enough for reasons why that’s true, I find them. The looking creates them.