If you never fall down...

... you never learn how to get back up. 

You never learn how much you WANT to get back up. You never learn how strong getting back up makes you. You never gain experience from whatever it was that made you fall down in the first place.

Falling down, making mistakes, getting hurt is really what shapes you, educates you and makes you stronger.

I know the last thing a person wants to hear when they are down is, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." But it has really hit me lately that all those things that make you fall down; once you get back up, they really do make you stronger!

When you pick yourself back up, it really does give you such a sense of accomplishment and strength and awareness for next time. This is true for me in several ways.

Like me taking 3 days to wallow, and gaining 6 lbs. I let myself get totally off track, which makes it harder to get back on track both in terms of eating well and exercising. Maybe it's annoyingly difficult, but I am doing it. And that makes it feel like even more of an accomplishment. When it's not easy, like when you're out of the routine, have emotional triggers, it requires more focus. Then when you actually do it, you are proud of yourself and aware that you CAN do it.
Or like how I once again allowed myself to get sucked back into a bad game of emotional roulette with my ex-boyfriend. I got hurt (shocker), but now I am picking myself up again. Now I know to always stay away from him and never let him back in again. I also know that I am strong, I care about myself and can look out for my own best interests and stop playing the game. I can move on, I can demand better, I can choose to not tolerate disrespect. I can choose who I allow in my life.

These are all valuable lessons I would not have learned otherwise. See, sometimes it takes the bad stuff to make us smarter. And once we are smarter, we are forever stronger because of it.

That's why I really love the saying, "Never a failure, always a lesson." (Altho I don't think I am going to get that tattoo...)

Attitude of Gratitude: I am stronger today than I was before.