This morning when I opened my mailbox I got the best kind of surprise: mail from gorgeous person and motivator-extraordinaire, Katherine Mackenzie of The Beauty of Life. Katherine sent me two postcards, one on which she’d written a little message for me, and another that was left blank so that I could send it on to somebody else.

My postcard featured a quote from Harry Potter author JK Rowling. “One thing is for sure: if you give up too soon, you’ll never know what you’ll be missing. Keep going and never quit.”

This was EXACTLY what I needed to hear today, as I struggled to get on top of everything on my plate, and grappled with self-doubt.

And it reminded me of JK Rowling’s incredibly inspiring commencement address on “The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination,” made to Harvard students in 2008. Have you heard it? If you haven’t, do yourself a favour and watch it right now. The next 20 minutes may be one of the greatest gifts you could ever give yourself.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

… Or if you’re not a video watcher kind of Internet person (as I so often am not, because I don’t want to wake babies sleeping nearby), here is a link to the full transcript of the address. Get ye reading!