Despite all his successes, including The Twilight Zone and (I didn’t know this) Planet of the Apes, Rod Serling thought he was a failure. From Rod Serling’s last interview before his death in 1975, courtesy of Legacy.com:

God knows when I look back over 30 years of professional writing, I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything that’s important. […] Some things are literate, some things are interesting, some things are classy, but very damn little is important.

The writer at Legacy.com aptly observed:

“Anyone who believes him would have to be living in another dimension.”

If someone as intellectually and artistically successful as Rod Serling can feel like a failure, maybe we’re selling ourselves short, too. I’m prone to ruminating and perfectionism (which I realize makes me sound like a blast to hang out with), and I see that as mostly surmountable. Sort of hard to articulate as a New Year’s resolution, though.

How about this:

Fail and fail often! Fail until you succeed. Try hard, try very hard. Just because you fail, doesn’t mean you’re a failure.

This is me trying hard to update my blog every week or two. And if I fail, it will be because I have something amazing to say when I return. Like Rod Serling thought he was a failure, too.

Happy New Year. 🎊