I have to admit, I have some pretty amazing friends. They are not only fun and active, they’re smart and insightful (You know who you are). My friend, Kannan, sent out a link to J.K. Rowling’s 2008 commencement address to Harvard University to a group of us last week.
I watched it and agreed that it was well worth the 20 minutes of my time. To me, the biggest nugget came at the very end of the video, with less than a minute left. At that point, J.K. Rowling noted:
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.” 
I think sometimes we lose sight of our own power and as Rowling pointed out in her speech, it’s the ability to ‘imagine’ that sets us apart. To imagine, however, we must be willing to empathize and see the world from a view that is larger than ourselves. Otherwise, we live in a narrowly controlled environment where our life and our impact are diminished.
She also mentions the importance of failure. And she encourages the Harvard graduates to live a life that allows for failure. Because a life that allows failure is a life worth living. It is the risks we take, the passions we follow, the uncertain path that we walk that make us truly alive and contributing in ways that ignite and fuel our imagination and our impact. Otherwise, we live so safely and cautiously as to avoid failure which, ironically, is a failed life when all is said and done.
Perhaps J.K. Rowling was lucky. As she shared in her commencement address, she failed epically. Approximately seven years after graduating her marriage ended, she was a single mother, and jobless. She was one step away from being homeless and finally her fear of failure no longer gripped her. She had hit rock-bottom, so there was nothing left to fear. She had fallen and she had survived. Life still went on. She had her health. She had her beautiful young daughter. And she had the ability to imagine a better life. As she said, she hit rock-bottom which she then used as a solid foundation for moving forward.
Today, as I sit and meditate feeling the warm sun on my face, I will reflect on the lessons and questions that Rowling has inspired:
- Are there any areas in my life that I’m holding back and living cautiously because of fear?
- What have I learned from the failures in my life and how can I use those lessons in my life now?
- What can I imagine when I remove the fear of failure from the equation? How will my life change?
- What power do I have now to do what I want to do?
