Failures...we should think differently about them.

So today I'd like to talk about failures. I feel like they are something we should consider changing how we think and feel about. They are one of those things that no one likes to hear about. Your body tenses up. Your brain wants to shut down as soon as it hears the word. Let alone when you hear yourself think, “Oh my gosh, did I just fail?” You get all tense. It’s so icky and gross all over.

Then, if you hear the word success. You feel a sense of openness, a sense of wonder, maybe a feeling of, “Wow, I would like to do that again. This is nice.”

So why do we want to use the word fail? Why don't we change it a bit? Think about it as if we're going to modify it. Take it and make it better. Now I'm not saying you can take it from languages throughout the world because I know English professors everywhere are not going to just let me go and remove it from mine. But that would be pretty cool.

No, I'm thinking about just looking at it from the idea that they could be a learning experience. Maybe we look at it as something we have done, that we would prefer not to do it again, but not something that was a complete and utter disaster.

So, I think, tomorrow when you go out and about to do something, stop and think about everything as a process. Think of it as everything you are doing as increments. As the processes of everything you do as being made up of little tiny pieces. And every time you do a piece you can add it as a success or you could just note it as an outcome that you want to tweak the next time like you would with a set of tools. Now when your itty-bitty pieces don't work out exactly as planned remember, we're not using the word failure in the same way we did before. We go about our day and say, “Okay, I didn't like that result. I didn't like how that worked out.”

So then, the next day, when you're about to do that little tiny stuff just stop, wait, and say, “Yesterday I did this, and it was great. I'm going to do it the same way.” or “Hmm, that didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned yesterday so I think I am going to change my approach a bit.”

Now throughout the day, you have tons and tons of little tidbits to consider, modify, or keep the same. You learn from all of them. They change and evolve every time you do them.

So, when you're about to refer to what you just did as a failure. Think about it and go, “Well, what did I do yesterday? Was it better than yesterday? Isn’t that technically a success, because it's better than yesterday?”

But sometimes it could be worse than yesterday? So, you say to yourself, “Do I need to change it? What do I change?”

So, everything is in the way you think about it. So instead of thinking things are failures, think about them as a process of tiny bits working together to create an ever-evolving day in which to learn. Then you can think of those days as ways you could take on new and better challenges.

Sometimes when you think of things as tiny bits which you can just tweak, it isn’t so intimidating.

So, next time you are dwelling on a so-called failure, try looking at it from this angle and see how it changes your perspective.

Go now. Be Safe. Know that you are not alone.