Fearless Failure

Oh my gosh, what a ridiculous title for a blog oriented to "doing stuff." I mean, who wants to think about, talk about or even consider failure on the way to success? Well, just about anyone who has ever done anything -- and you're included here -- has failed along the way. Failure is a natural part of learning and appreciating that fact is a way of using failure fearlessly and powerfully.

From the time we are kids most of us are taught to fear failure -- especially in public. The looming stigma is punishing even before any act of failure occurs. Over time, it can keep us from taking risks, speaking up or reaching out. And for every time we count ourselves out before we get started, we have surrendered an opportunity to learn, to be, to do.

Failure also tends to be directional. Think about the simple act of riding a bike. When we see something in our path that we determine we want to avoid (say a piece of glass that could puncture a tire) looking toward it almost guarantees that we'll steer toward it. Looking toward the alternate (glass-free) path allows our focus to be there -- and so our steering (and therefore our body) follows. Focusing on failure may just deliver it. Acknowledging that failure happens along the way and that it carries along with it learning allows us to accept it when it comes along and act in the moment to adapt to the change it presents.

Finally, think of times when you've been fearful of doing something because you were afraid of failing. I bet you can recall feeling tense, rigid, forward focused and inward oriented. That's exhausting!

While fear of failure can limit action (and therefore learning) and negatively direct or drain the energy we need to succeed, the experience of failure (without fear, embarrassment or shame) yields learning and the energy that comes from getting that next "piece of the puzzle."

There are almost too many stories to count of famous people who have experienced multiple failures on the way to success. One of my favorites is of Thomas Alva Edison. Edison, of course, is the inventor of the electric light bulb. I grew up on this story because Edison's winter home is in my hometown of Fort Myers, Florida. And what with the Edison Pageant of Lights, the Edison Mall and the Edison Home, it was hard to avoid the history and the trivia of the man.
As the story goes, when Edison was a schoolboy, he was told by his teachers that he was "too stupid to learn anything." A bit of a daydreamer (visionary) he also was fired from jobs in his youth for a lack of productivity. And after more than one thousand failed attempts at the light bulb, Edison developed the successful design. I love that story. I imagine Edison gleefully looking for the puzzle piece in failure that would give him the next clue he needed toward inventing the light bulb.

The simple truth is that no one is immune from failure. I am happy to know I'm in good company. While I haven't always, today I choose to appreciate the learning of failure by taking the time to consider what that learning is, rather than to suffer in ego-centric humiliation.

Snowman Training: Two days to record. Yesterday was 45 minutes on the Summit Trainer at the gym set on the "Round the World" program that delivers varying elevations for training. Then 30 minutes of strength training. Today I chose to mix things up a bit with 40 minutes of step training with weights (hadn't done that in awhile). As my massage therapist said today, sometimes it's good to confuse our muscles :-)

Thought for the day: I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. ~Michael Jordan