Why failure is a good thing in life
Failure. How does that word make you feel? I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts recently where the whole concept has been talking about failure and how failure is not a bad thing. I’ve also had two conversations this week, as well, with different people about failure and how we can sometimes automatically put ourselves down and be so hard on ourselves when failure occurs.
But here’s the newsflash - I don't see failure as a bad thing! I know… hold the phone, call the news channels, take a breath. Failure is a good thing in life, people!
Why failure is a good thing in life
Now I know this may be quite hard to comprehend, we are brought up learning that we have to be good at things, a success at things, get good grades, do well. It can be hard to get to the point of agreeing with me that failure is a good thing without putting in a lot of personal development and inner mindset work.
Failure is really interesting because one of the podcasts I was listening to yesterday talks about how... And I'm not going to name names because my husband will be like, "You have totally got these wrong." But I know one of them is Tom Brady, but it's to do with NFL players. The example was to do with how successful they have been in the season. But the reason that they've also been most successful is because they've had the most plays and also they've probably had the most unsuccessful parts of their NFL career. So this example is talking about how yes, they are so successful, but also they'd been doing it for a long time and so they've had to deal with ALL THE FAILURE, as well, to continue, continue, continue. Be consistent, continue delivering, and then have the successes. And I thought it was really interesting because it was all about the hard work you need to put in, all the dedication, time and effort in and having the right mindset that failure is part of the process.
“having the right mindset -
failure is part of the process”
Another great example of putting the effort in, keeping on going, even if you think you are not being successful is Gary Vee. Yes Gary Vaynerchuk, who is an amazing kind of entrepreneurial guru for many business owners, he started out with his own wine business and he used to do a YouTube video every week, about wine. Now, Gary Vee has 2.52m subscribers on YouTube and 7.5m followers on Instagram but, you know what? He started at the beginning. And he started talking about wine and he was posting videos on YouTube and like maybe five people would watch. Five people. Probably his mom, his aunt, you know how it is. But what he did is he kept on doing it, he kept on showing up. Why? Because he knew that he needed to do this, he needed to fail, and he maybe didn't see five views as a failure, but he needed to just stick with it. And even if it looked from the outside that he wasn't being successful, the more you do that and the more you fail, the more successful you will be.
So, yes. It's all about putting the hard work in and, actually, that failure should not be such a bad thing and that we need to fail in order to be successful. A while a go, I put a post on my Instagram feed where I talked about what my three successes 2019 were to date and the three things I'm really proud of. And one of my lovely followers, Janine, posted a really lovely insight into what's going on with her, and I just want to share it with you because I think it's really key. What she said was that she has "learned to fail with less feelings of failure.” - BOOM!! I love that right there!!
That's really interesting, "Learning to fail with less feelings of failure.” She elaborated her own point here, "Sometimes our goals are unattainable despite all efforts and intentions, and it's okay to let them go and set new goals.” I totally agree with this. Janine said that “failure is a harsh word, but it's often the outcome. Most of the most successful people in the world have failures." YES, YES, YES - I couldn’t agree more.
So that’s it - you've got to fail to succeed, but it's about understanding that the process of failure and the concept of it is not a bad thing. Take the mindset that yes, this is a good thing and you've got to keep doing it.
There's a study that was quoted in one of these podcasts I was listening to, and I've heard it before actually... about an experiment with a pottery group. The pottery class in the USA were set at task and split into two groups. One group had to work for a whole semester on one piece of pottery, that was all they could work on and they would submit that at the end of the semester for review. The other group could produce as much as they liked over the semester. So, it was quantity over quality. They could do three a day, one a day, whatever. They could just keep, keep going and then submit the best one. And what's interesting in the study, is the people that got the highest grades in this class were the ones who had put the effort in, kept on trying, had the failures because then they got to successes in the end.
My message to you is that we have to have a positive mindset for success and also have some self-compassion, have some kindness for yourself and think “this might have not turned out the best way that I wanted it to, but I'm going to learn from it. I'm not going to be attached to the outcome, and the outcome might be seen as failure but actually it's a success because I am still here. I've learnt something from it and I can move forward.”
So remember - learn to fail with less feelings of failure
Are you a successful, female online business owner that has lots to be proud of and should be enjoying life? But instead, you feel stuck in the perpetual business cycle that you’ve created for yourself?
➟ Do you feel that you always have to be working ‘in’ your business rather than working ‘on’ it and yourself?
➟ Do you feel like you're exhausted all the time and missing out on enjoying your life?
Are you always asking yourself, “What’s the point is of it all if I feel like I’m missing out on my life?” ...then you are me, a few years ago! Don’t worry, I get it!
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