In an inspiring 20-minute talk, Taylor Swift shared how her biggest mistakes led to the best things in her life.
Taylor Swift has earned a lot of praise. She has a dozen Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy and a few hundred awards she’s never even heard of. She also managed to record and release two full-length albums in the second half of 2020. You remember 2020, right? You know, the year when finding a store with toilet paper in stock was an achievement.
This year added one more. New York University awarded him an honorary doctorate. At her graduation ceremony, Swift gave a 20-minute speech to the graduating class, during which she shared what she called life advice.
Billboard magazine has published a full speech transcript, which is worth reading. Commencement speeches – especially those delivered by celebrity guests – are often boring and full of platitudes and cliché advice about how this group of graduates is going to change the world. Swift, by contrast, is as gifted with words as anyone and uses them in a way that makes her relatable to just about anyone.
So even if you don’t have time to read it all, you shouldn’t miss this section, right in the middle:
I grew into a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, every child in America would grow up to be the perfect angel. However, if I slipped up, the entire earth would spin off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It all revolved around the idea that mistakes equate to failure and ultimately the loss of any chance at a happy or fulfilling life.
This has not been my experience. My experience has been that my mistakes have led me to the best things in my life.
We should stop for a second because most of us have no idea what the pressure must be like for someone who has lived most of their life with the kind of public exposure that Swift has had. In her speech she talked about all kinds of circumstances that would make anyone want to give up. He spoke of disappointment, loneliness, and the cost of making mistakes.
The thing is, if we’re really honest, we can relate. I mean, there sure are a lot of things about being a teen country music star that are completely irrelevant to most of us. But, we all do dumb things. We screw up and break things. We hurt people, we make bad decisions, we take risks and sometimes we fail. Or so it seems.
Swift’s point is that mistakes do not equal failure. And if they do, it’s only because we let them. On the other hand, mistakes are often how we learn to succeed. This is how we discover the limit of our capabilities and find a way to go further.
The key is – and this is important – that Swift has made a decision. Following the path from your mistakes to the best things in your life is a choice.
That’s what you need to hear: The key is not perfection, but whatever the next step is for you. And, if you take a wrong step – if you put your foot in the wrong place – you pick it up and take another. And other.
Over time, you discover your path. Over time, your idea becomes reality. Over time, you do the thing and it works.
But, only if you are not consumed by your mistakes. When that happens, you stop trusting yourself to know where to put your foot and you stop taking steps. Instead, learn from your mistakes… or better yet, find someone who has made them before you and is willing to help you. As Swift said:
Every choice you make leads to the next, which leads to the next, and I know sometimes it’s hard to know which way to go. There will be times in life when you will have to stand up for yourself. Times when the right thing to do is back off and apologize. Times when the right thing to do is fight, times when the right thing to do is turn and run. Times when you have to hold on with everything you have and times when you have to let go gracefully. Sometimes the right thing to do is to discard the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing to do is listen to the wisdom of those who have gone before us. How will you know which is the right option in these crucial moments? You will not know.
Nothing happens. Most likely you will make some mistakes. And those could become the best parts of your life.
We wish to say thanks to the author of this article for this remarkable material
