Change your mind about failure.

Failure is a good thing.  It means you are trying something.  It means you are in the arena fighting rather than spectating.

Failure is the only way to grow something.  Its a cycle; a process.  Try something, fail at it, determine why it failed, try again.

You WILL fail at anything worth learning.  In fact it’s the way; the path to learning something new.

I always tell my students that “Failure is just a First Attempt In Learning.”  That’s all it is.  It’s not bad or something you should feel shame about.  It’s simply a tool to help you accomplish whatever it is that you want to accomplish.

Failure is uncomfortable only because we’ve been raised in an environment that does not promote it.

But you know what else is uncomfortable?  Growth.  Any growth.  Growth is a shaky, awkward, painful process.  Growth is difficult.  Growth takes repeating the failure cycle over and over and over again.  Growth is the opposite of “hacking”, it knows no shortcuts.  It is hard work.  

This is why so many people shy away from growth as they age.  They get comfortable in their habits.  They repeatedly take the EASY PATH.  They stop growing because they stop failing.  They stop failing because they stopped creating opportunities to fail.  They stop creating opportunities to fail because they become complacent.

Do NOT get hung up on the path of complacency; this path of stagnation.  It is a path that will ultimately lead to an unfulfilled life.

Take risks, try something new, purposefully fail.  Accept that personal growth is going to be difficult.  Accept that failures will happen; that obstacles are expected and embraced (another reminder hanging in the front of my classroom- from The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday)

Accept that the cycle of failure is the path towards personal growth.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this.  This blog is an attempt at something new for me.  An attempt to overcome certain fears I have about sharing my ideas publicly.  I appreciate each and every one of you!