Expect to fail

Not because failure is a good thing in any way. It sucks. It’s an awful thing that stops you in your tracks, sucks all of the energy out of you, throws you in an emotional cycle of doubt and self-recrimination, and sends you off to the sofa to eat chocolate and watch Parks and Recreation while you rebuild your emotional energy. It’s horrible and all of the people who fetishise it are rich bastards who’ve earned enough money to soothe the pain. Failure is, however, unavoidable. And, once you’ve pulled yourself up from your chocolate binge and finished all six seasons of Parks and Rec, it is an excellent learning experience. (But, what do I know? All the stories and songs about failure I heard while growing up in Iceland involved drowning at sea or ended with ravens pecking the eyes out of your bloated and abandoned corpse. Thank $deity there are only so many seasons of Parks and Recreation to watch.)