What Oprah Says About Failure
Do you keep making the same mistakes over and over? I do. Alot of us do, I think. Here’s what Oprah says about failure, starting over, and learning from your mistakes.
Have you ever thought about why you keep making the same mistakes? I have. For me, it stems from the fear of not having enough. Growing up, we relied on “the kindness of strangers” to survive - but we weren’t just financially poor. We were emotionally, spiritually, and socially poor, too.
So I became tightfisted, and not just with money. I tend to hoard my time, attention, and approval because I’m afraid I won’t have enough left over for me. Fear, I think, is the basis for most of our failures, wrong choices, and repeated mistakes….which is why what Oprah says about failure is so important.
Inspirational Quotation From Oprah About Failure
“Most of us are certainly uncomfortable with, if not terrified of, failure. We think it defines us. It does not,” says Oprah Winfrey. “Like every other experience, failure is defined by our reaction to it. Failures can be God’s little whispers; other times, they are full earthquakes erupting in our lives because we didn’t listen to the whispers.”
What Oprah also says: “Failure is just a way for our lives to show us that we’re moving in the wrong direction, that we should try something different. It holds no more power than we give it.”
For you: How are you failing in your life? What is the root cause — the real reason? Once you figure out why you keep making the same mistakes, you can take back your power. You can bounce back from mistakes. When I fail in my personal and professional life - when I do keep making the same mistakes - I can trace it back to being afraid of not having enough.
But my failure doesn’t define me, as Oprah says. It shows me I’m moving in the wrong direction - I’m motivated by the wrong things. My mistakes not only give me insight into who I am as a woman, they also show me who I want to become.
Source of Oprah’s quotation about failure: Oprah Magazine, February 2001.
Comment by Gwendolyn Austin on 15 December 2008:
Oprah is a true phenominal and beautiful women inside and out. Her words of wisdom, generosity and kindness are an example all of man kind should follow. Bless you Lady O.