Failure

 

Have you failed? More than once? I certainly have, we all have.

Thomas Edison made many attempts at inventing a working lightbulb with setback after setback. Yet he was confident he hadn’t failed even once. He had simply found ten thousand ways not to make a lightbulb. That’s a great perspective when you face adversity. In the effort toward any worthwhile goal, failure has to be considered part of the process. Failure in achieving a particular result isn’t really failure if it’s another step on the way toward the goal. It can be a vital part of the journey.

Until we can accept failure as part of the process our growth and accomplishments are limited.

*Taken from a page in the book “Uncommon Life Daily Challenge” by Tony Dungy

FEAR

 Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today.

Thoughts on Change…

Stagnation should not be an option in life, but it is.  As humans we must change, grow, develop, and mature.  Failure to do so leads to stagnation, which in turn leads to boredom, failure, and frustration.  The world constantly changes around us.  The last fifteen months of the pandemic has led to even more change than normal, drastic, and unprecedented change. If we do not adapt to change, we will be left behind.  That is true as much in our work world as it is in our home life.  The business world of instant communications, corporate transparency and the world-wide economy is drastically different than it was just a few short years ago.  In the same way, raising kids is not what it was just 5 years ago, never mind 25 years ago. 

It is important that we embrace change in order to keep up with the ever-changing world, but more importantly to grow personally.  We cannot control the change that takes place around us but changing ourselves is a choice.  We can choose to change for the good.  Below is a great quote on the topic of change and why it is so important in our lives.

"Change is the Law of Life. Those who only look to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

- John F. Kennedy

Lead Yourself First

How well do you lead yourself?  Recently we talked about how leadership starts at home, and it does.  Beyond that however, it truly starts with leading oneself.  It is very difficult to truly lead at home, in the community or at work without first leading yourself.  I find this to be challenging personally.  I encourage and often portray discipline, yet I am not very disciplined myself.  Many of my greatest leadership failures have been related to leading myself and my family.  For some reason it seems okay to let ourselves down but not others.  Truly great leadership does begin at home.  It begins at home with oneself.  When was your last conversation with yourself about you leading you?

Go make it a great week.  Start by leading yourself first!

You don’t have to always be right!

It’s okay to be wrong, everyone is, and it is important to admit it when we are.  More important is the need for leaders to allow those who work for them to admit their mistakes.  Good leaders give people permission to be wrong.  Most people don't admit their mistakes because of fear. They're afraid they won't be forgiven¹.  Good leaders let their followers know that it's okay.  Great leaders even share their own stories of failure.  It shows that they care and allows them to be human.  This permission to be wrong leads to stronger relationships between leaders and followers.  It leads to humility and transparency. 

There are few guarantees in life, making mistakes is one of them.  Allow yourself to be wrong and admit it.  More importantly, allow those around you to be wrong and admit it.

¹ Parsley, Brian, Admit You’re Wrong (brianparsley.com)

Emphasizing the Negative?

As a society it seems like we tend to focus on the negative and not the positive.  We seek and point out flaws and failures way more actively than we do accomplishments and successes.  I know that I am guilty of this.  It is something that I have recently made a decision to try and change.  A conscious effort is required to be positive and look for the good things in life all the time.  Some people are better at it than others.  But for some reason the world around us seems to make it harder.  The media is certainly no help.  So much of the news is driven by negativity, failure, fraud and corruption.  Even the weatherman is working against us.  Why is it that a 70% chance of sunshine is communicated as a 30% chance of rain?  We might find ourselves a little more pleasant to be around if we sought out the positive more often than the negative.   

Be positive.  Be blessed…

Failure

Don’t fear failure!  We have all seen the stories of successful people and how many times they failed before getting where they are today.  Failure is a part of the growth process.  It is necessary and normal.  In fact it should almost be encouraged.  But it is not only important to personal growth, it is key to innovation.  If we are not failing occasionally we are probably not trying enough new things!  Progress and change require experimentation and experimenting involves failures.  Consider this…

“If you prohibit failure you kill innovation”

-     Dan Pallotta 

Don’t fear failure.  More importantly, don’t prohibit failure!