A motivation during depression

'' Seven years after my graduation day I had failed on an epic scale an exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded and I was jobless a lone parent and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless the fears that my parents had had for me and that I had had for myself had both come to pass and by every usual standard I was the biggest failure. I knew now I'm not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun that period of my life was a dark one and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy-tale resolution I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended and for a long time any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality so why do I talk about the benefits of failure simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. 

  

 I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me had I really succeeded at anything else I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized and I was still alive and I still had a daughter whom I adored and I had an old typewriter and a big idea and so rock-bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life you might never fail on the scale I did but some failure in life is inevitable it is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all in which case you fail by default failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are ever after secure in your ability to survive you will never truly know yourself or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity such knowledge is a true gift for all that it is painfully won and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.''