Dec 19, 2011
Woke up this morning and got inspired! How? Reading. I love reading, I do NOT do it enough. But man do I love it. This morning I came across a quote that really struck me.
If you want to learn about success, talk to a successful person. If you want to learn about failure, talk to a very successful person.
Wow, that really is true. I was watching a video last night by Robin Sharma. It was an interview he did for Studio 4. The interviewer, Fanny Kiefer, mentioned that people need to understand that it’s ok to fail as long as they fail up. What an awesome idea when you stop and think about it. Too often we commit to something, know it’s not working and are scared to let it go, to fail. Many of us won’t try at all for the fear of failure. This is a BIG reason many of us go nowhere or develop as humans very slowly. We need to shake that. It’s OK to fail, to let something go, to be a failure. As long as we don’t stop where we fail.
We just need to fail UP. This is a simple concept that teaches us that as long as we grow and learn from our mistakes we get better. If we move forward or “up” then we are not failing at all. We are simply growing.
I could tell you about a hundred failures I have had in business, friendships, relationships and schooling. I’m ok with all of them. I wouldn’t trade one of them. I love to get better. I am not afraid to say I am sorry or “I admit I made a mistake.”. These words don’t scare me anymore. The older I get the more I realize I have lots to learn! I am excited about that growth. To let go of the past and learn from it. Sometimes failing hurts, but like building muscle we have to feel the pain of the growth for it to show.
“You learn more from falling flat on your face than you ever will in school.” Billy Joel
Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership Learning and Growing Motivation on Dec 19, 2011 at 12:15 pm | Permanent Link | Comments (3)
Comment posted on Dec 19, 2011 at 1:13 pm by Angela (YLCC Member)
Sometimes failing hurts, but like building muscle we have feel the pain of the growth for it to show.
Love this line
Great blog - thanks for sharong
Comment posted on Dec 19, 2011 at 11:23 pm by ElizabethB (YLCC Member)
I will absolutely admit that i am afraid of failure and i am sure that it has held me back from doing more than a couple things. I’m afraid that if i am not the best, or if i do not get it perfect, then it isn’t worth doing. This is a dangerous mentality, one that can only end in failing down. I work every day at taking new leaps of faith
Comment posted on Dec 29, 2011 at 11:28 am by Carolyn-Marie Goodwin (YLCC Member)
In the past failure was something I feared most. I always seemed to start things and then walk away from them before I could fail. I disliked letting people down but most importantly myself. I have been working hard at changing this fear of mine and this post helped me out a great deal.
Everything I do now, I put all my effort into it. When I come across a difficult patch, I embrace it and learn from it.
I find the more I engage in things, the more I find myself growing. It is with this growth that I am becoming a better person.
‘It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who paints out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of good deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whos face is marred by dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who expends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows, n the end the triumph of high achievement, and at worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat’