On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s an inspiring excerpt from Mary Morrissey’s recent release, Brave Thinking:

For anything to have a chance of becoming reality, you need to first imagine it. When we allow ourselves to imagine a life we would love, we discover resources we didn’t know we had. With a well-formed dream, you can advance confidently in its direction. The laws of nature work differently when you are in this state. Take as an example Thomas Edison, arguably one of the most prolific inventors of all time, who aimed to devise a major invention every six months and a minor one every ten days.

When asked how he survived 10,000 failures before building the first incandescent bulb, he famously replied that he had never had a failure. He had simply found thousands of ways for it not to work.

It was all feedback. “I was never myself discouraged or inclined to be hopeless of success. I cannot say the same for all my associates,” he wrote. “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Source: Brave Thinking, pp. 42-43