…I’ve written about this many times, but if you’ve come through the educational system you were trained to fear failing.
If it wasn’t public ridicule, either from classmates or the teacher, it was that red pen that savaged what had been written on the page.
Oh, and let’s not forget exams, those things that marked whether we were a dummy or a genius. – Which by the way, never took into account bad teachers, boring subjects we would never use after school, and that it mattered more to have a great memory than your ability to actually think on your feet.
And so we grew to hate failure. – Most adults still fear it and so live lives way below what they’re capable of.
Thing is, no one ever dies from it. – OK, there may be the odd one or two, like maybe jumping over the Grand Canyon on a rocket bike. But for the majority of us, the payment is a lot smaller. You get to wake up the next day.
But there’s always something you can learn from it. – Always.
We learn that that idea didn’t work. That we should have kept our hands on the bike’s handlebars. That no one liked that book idea. That podcasting isn’t for you. That you need to do TikToks on another topic. That you sold your digital product too cheap.
There’s always something there that you can use for your next approach.
Or as Larry Wilson explains perfectly in this quote…
“I cannot fail… I only learn and grow.’
So not only do you learn, but you grow from your failures.
The lessons I learned from failure in the class weren’t much, but the ones I learned outside of it were huge.
Trying numerous business ideas and failing. Losing my home. Being a parent. Falling out with my family. Writing books no one wanted. I could go on and on…
Although each one was painful, frustrating, or heartbreaking, there were always nuggets of wisdom in the ashes.
It would be nice if I’d known that before a lot of those things, but that’s not the way life is set up. You make mistakes and gain wisdom.
And if you don’t use that wisdom next time. Life loves nothing more than making you fail another time until you learn that wisdom.
So stop fearing failure.
Unless you’re defusing a bomb and need to pick between the red and the blue wire, you’re going to come out the other side of failure.
Remember, you can’t fail, you only learn and grow.
Now go out there and do some learning and growing.
Now here’s one thing I failed at until I got into the swing of things.
https://writecome.com/email-ace/
