“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
Lean into failure…don’t resist it! How many times do we shoo a bee only for it to return to its mission immediately. What does it do? It often changes its strategy and comes from all sorts of different angles. What doesn’t it do? It doesn’t quit!!! We’re the ones that usually have to walk away, right? Failure, my sweet friends, if used wisely is one of our greatest teachers. Our perspective on failure has a huge impact on the outcome of our goals and commitments.
First, it’s so important to understand and embrace the concept that a single failure DOES NOT equate to WE ARE A FAILURE. If we take the time to put it in perspective, we’re typically dealing with a single behavior. We messed up one thing while we did many many things right at the same time.
Another productive perspective to have is one of seeing each failure as a mirror into our thoughts, actions and perhaps habits. An opportunity to examine what we did or didn’t do. What kind of thoughts did we have that led to those behaviors that caused this single minor failure. Often times we find that not much conscious thought was involved and that we acted out of habit. In this case we have an opportunity to improve the level of our awareness. Approaching failure this way gives us an opportunity to understand and adjust that which needs changed and to get right back on the path towards our goal, only smarter.
A counterproductive perspective, one to stay away from, is one that immediately leads to thoughts of discouragement, self-loathing and quitting altogether.
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Chris Bradford
If we think of reaching a goal in terms of stepping stones…failure may keep you on the same stone a bit longer or may require a minor detour, but the next step you take will be much bigger/higher because you gained insight into what not to do or how not to think. A failure really is just a temporary detour or stop, not a dead end. Every tiny step in the right direction is bigger than staying stuck or going backwards. Reward yourself for progress & for learning as you move towards a goal.
Have a wonderful day!
Much love, Dee!?
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