Have you failed? I have, over and over again.
I have been talking to a lot of people lately not about FAILING. Some are budding entrepreneurs, some are people simply trying lose a few pounds (like me.) One person I know started out strong with a big weight loss goal. After a month I thought she had a decent weight loss number, but she was disappointed and was talking about giving up. She said the results were not worth the effort she had put into it.
If you are going to lose weight, do you expect to have no setbacks? I have been trying to lose 15 pounds. I went for 3 weeks with no weight loss. I was disappointed. Here’s one way to look at it.
A. Weight loss – Success
B. No weight loss – failure
This is what I used to think. But now I see 4 options.
A. Weight loss – WOW!!! Awesome!
B. Weight loss maintained – Holding steady (important skill for the long haul)
C. Gain back lost weight – Not the best, but just gets you back to where you were in the first place
D. Overall weight gain – Worst shape than the beginning but still in the game
So I can say I had a failure, or I can say I maintained my weight loss for those 3 weeks. Yes, I don’t see that I failed. I don’t even see it as a setback, but as a delay. I didn’t meet my goal of losing 15 pounds, but I did lose 8 pounds and I’m pretty happy with that. Yes I want to lose more weight, but hey, I made progress. And I’ve been walking 2 miles every day for 2 months now. Yay me!! I’m not where I want to be, but I’m not where I was.
HOW DO YOU FAIL THE RIGHT WAY? Well here’s my take on it.
Count the risks. If the risks are small and the possible reward great and important to you, go for it. So what if you fail? Enjoy the ride. Learn, and next time you will get even closer or actually hit the mark based on what you learned. If you aren’t willing to deal with the risks, then pass on it.
Frame the failure. Is it really a failure? Is the failure that bad? Did someone die or did you just feel embarrassed by the failure? Did someone laugh at you or criticize you? Who cares? Their opinion of you is none of your business, truly.
Realize failure is part of the process. Failure is how we learn. Look at successful people and you will find a group of people who failed a lot. They failed, they learned and they kept going. Expect failure, give it a hug, learn from it, then keep going.
Keep your eyes on the prize. If you are traveling to your vacation destination, and you have a flat tire. Do you stay where you had the flat tire, or do you fix it and keep going? Would you stay where the flat occurred and continue to mourn the loss of the tire, and complain about how the universe hated you? Would you go home and cry? Would you say that your vacation trip was just not meant to be? Would you say, that was so bad, I’ll never take a vacation again? Of course you would fix the tire, and keep going.
So the right way to fail is to learn from the failure and keep on going.
In the words of Winston Churchill, never, never, never give up. I love his quotes so much, that I included a link to more of what he said about failure. CLICK HERE.
Very wise words. Thank you.
All very true. It’s important to look at just the fact that I AM trying something so that in itself is important.
Oops my blog didn’t come through I think. Anyway thanks for a great post!