We tend to avoid failure and making mistakes at all costs, even at the greatest cost of all, which is not attempting anything in the first place because we are afraid to fail. Why are we afraid to fail, though? Is it truly because we don't want to feel like failures, or is it because we don't want others to see us as failures? We value the opinions of others so much more than our own that we are willing to put off our dreams, our goals and our happiness because other people whose opinions are meaningless might see us as failures, laugh at us, talk about us behind our backs or say, "I told you so".
So it is time to redefine failure. There has been a lot of talk about redefining failure, embracing failure and failure being a necessary part of the journey. When I was growing up, failure was the idea that you didn't achieve your goal the first time you tried. You tried and you succeeded, or you tried and you failed.
Unfortunately, most people never achieve a goal the first time they begin working towards it and if they do, chances are that goal was an easy one and they weren't aiming high enough because they underestimated how much they are actually capable of.
Failure is an inevitable experience along the path of success. The greatest business owners, the greatest athletes, they all experienced an incredible amount of failure before success: Steve Jobs was fired from his own company, the company he started, before being hired back six years later and turning Apple into a billion-dollar company. Howard Schultz of Starbucks stepped down as CEO for the good of the company, but then later returned. Michael Jordan once said, "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed".
If failure is inevitable, then how can it be avoided? Of course, we want to foresee potential obstacles that will come up on the road to success, that is just good planning. I do this with my clients.
Failure is not about the twists and turns and forks in the road we encounter on the journey. For in every failure lies a lesson, a seed of wisdom that will be an integral part of the next leg of your journey.
Failure is never having started out of fear of what lies ahead. Out of the fear that we're not good enough, smart enough, resourceful enough. Failure is turning your back on what could be because it's far easier to embrace the safe and comfortable.
Chances are, however, that you had to encounter some kind of set back, road block or obstacle to get to where you are today, either personally or professionally.
When I was in the military, we had to do morning runs which I hated more than anything else. Our Sergeants used to tell us, "Don't stop running! You can slow down, but never stop running". There were times where I did not take this advice and it was near impossible to get back into the cadence of the run with my troops.
So the advice here is to keep moving forward, no matter how fast or slow your progress might be, it is still progress.
So embrace the imperfection of the journey and redefine failure.
Failure Exercise:
This is an exercise I do for myself as well as with clients. It is a great way to use the past as leverage to propel you forward into next-level success. It is very simple, but I believe there is an incredible power and catharsis in writing things down and looking at them as opposed to just trying to keep them all straight in your mind.
Think about all the times in your life that were extremely hard and that you wondered if you would ever get through them. Write them all down. Then write down one good thing that came out of all these. Maybe it was a lesson, maybe it was a new job, maybe it was a new relationship. Whatever it is write it down. Keep this list somewhere you can look at it and pull it out whenever you start to doubt yourself. Remind yourself you've gone through worse and came out OK, and that you will again this time.
Don't Stop Running,
https://ezinearticles.com/?Failure-Is-an-Alphas-Best-Friend&id=9661149
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