Hurrah!!! A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled became number one in the first week of its life in paperback. Thank you all... I'm celebrating now but am very aware some day I will slip down the slippery list of best sellers into obscurity.
I'm kind of kidding, but kind of not - because I know every time I feel a tiny twinge of pride that, in a little while, I'll be kicked in the ass by karma. I'm always in a semi bent over position. I think this kind of pessimism is healthy. It's a truth that however high you go, there will always be a descent; it's the law of gravity. But don't think that right now I'm not blowing up the mental balloons and popping the corks. I am. I just think it's better to always have your eye on the Newton school of thought, which is "what goes up..." You know the rest. I truly believe if we can imbibe this we'll be far more able to take the inevitable bumps of life. "You can't always stop the waves but you can learn to surf them."
I once gave a speech at a school saying that I think they should teach a course on the art of failing. We all need to know how to deal with failure as early as possible because, later in their lives, they're going to be carpet-bombed with it. If they seriously believe that their status as Captain of the Team is going to continue after they graduate school, they'll find themselves badly shot down in flames with third-degree burns. This is why the most popular cheerleaders often end up as crack whores. They weren't ready for the big, wide world - they didn't learn the lesson of all lessons: you cannot be perky forever. A set of smiley choppers, big bazookas and pigtails just don't cut it when you're forty-five.
If you don't fail, you don't fight. It's the innovators who try, fail, try, fail... those are the real winners. It should be written on every epitaph that 'she/he tried'. Every new invention and creation was originally met with derision. There are many people who tend to fight original ideas, mainly because they don't have them. Teachers should teach kids to go for the great idea with no fear of getting an F on spelling when they're writing up their opus. Rather than teachers ramming information into kids' minds so they can regurgitate it on the test paper, they should be in the business of igniting their little imaginations no matter what grade they end up with. As someone said, "you don't fatten a pig by weighing it."
There were so many subjects I would have been interested in studying, but I knew, that the day would come when I'd have to spew my knowledge on to a piece of paper in a limited amount of time. So I lost my erection for education quite early on.
Anyway I had the last laugh. I'm number 1 and they're not. But it was because there were so many failures in my past that I got to where where I am now.
Not read it yet? You can buy Ruby's no. 1 best selling book A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled online and from all good bookshops.
Ruby is on tour in the UK and Australia throughout 2017 with her #Frazzled Show - tickets on sale now.
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