An excerpt from the ever-enlightening Seth Godin’s blog:
Here are six random ideas that will help you fail better, more often and with an inevitably positive upside:
- Whenever possible, take on specific projects. (to-do listing your goals)
- Make detailed promises about what success looks like and when it will occur. (goals)
- Engage others in your projects. If you fail, they should be involved and know that they will fail with you. (involving others in your goals, support for the highs and the lows)
- Be really clear about what the true risks are. Ignore the vivid, unlikely and ultimately non-fatal risks that take so much of our focus away. (be realistic about your goals, specify)
- Concentrate your energy and will on the elements of the project that you have influence on, ignore external events that you can’t avoid or change. (focus on what you can do best for your goals)
- When you fail (and you will) be clear about it, call it by name and outline specifically what you learned so you won’t make the same mistake twice. People who blame others for failure will never be good at failing, because they’ve never done it. (rewriting your goals)
So I kind of related this post to goals because I am a huge goal-writer/to-do lister. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I wasn’t. Every day I have a to-do list and every day I get things done. These daily items on my list are all backed by solidified goals that I’ve set and continue to re-work, re-write and re-do. I fail often. I try and try again regularly. And I continue to dream and DO daily.
I love failing. It’s rarely fun in the moment, but it’s the moments and days after that really count. Rising from those falls, climbing over those mountains and continuing to be lifted through progress is what really matters. Overcoming failure…it’s a beautiful and worthwhile journey. Sit down and think about it. You might realize you’ve loved it too.
So don’t be afraid to fail, like Godin says. It’s the stuff successful dreams (goals) are made of.
image shot on streets of Granada, Nicaragua, March 21, 2011
