FIVE Reasons why YOU will Fail and this is absolutely fine

I used to fear failure for being embarrassed, for my ego and the feeling that I wasn’t capable. It was ingrained into my personality that failing was a weakness but, over recent years I realised that in my career and personal life it was the very thing that inhibited me. I crash through uncomfortable thresholds and barriers without fear of failure, now more than ever before.

One example I’ll share with you is that I take a freezing cold shower to start each day due to the many benefits it gives you. If you think this is easy then I suggest you try it. It takes mental toughness to do this on winter mornings at 5:30am! The first time of trying this I failed, miserably. Now I jump straight in without giving the gasping for air and the ice cream headache a second thought. It took me a number of micro failures for this to become successful.

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“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — Robert F. Kennedy

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I know of no individual who has succeeded without having their old friend ‘failure’ by their side. Just ask anyone that is hugely successful and you will note that failure has been a huge influence on their successes. Think of any well-known business figure and you will realise that they will have failed on their way to the top.

Look no further than Virgin and Richard Branson; he is the first to admit he has failed several times with various companies. Now would you say that Branson is a failure? Of course not, but he is one of the most successful and influential figures who has failed in recent times. It may appear an odd sentiment, however, through his history, wealth and general importance I am sure he wouldn’t be offended by it.

It has become the very fabric of our universe that failure is seen as a negative and I see this as a great shame, inhibiting individuals who don’t fulfil their potential.

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“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill

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Below are 5 common examples of why people fail and as you will note, most of it is all in the mind.

You lack a sense of purpose

Do you go through the motions? Have goals, set your own ambitions as high as you dare? Look at the bigger picture and then develop your own self within that. Change your routine, do something different and challenge yourself. If you ‘micro fail’ trying any of these it doesn’t matter, the dichotomy is that you will have addressed your larger failing. You have given yourself purpose.

You accept your life is pre-determined

This is your comfortable life. You know where your seat is at the table and you are comfortable that you are a success. You are influenced by others telling you who you are and you abide by this. What can you become if you start to choose your own seat at the table rather than being told where to sit? Don’t accept that you can’t change things in your career, hobbies or home life.

You let others narrow and influence your mindset

Think about how many times people have complimented you on something you are good at, it might be a sport or a natural gift at work? You become that person, you continue to be that person and might even be relied upon for it. What if you are even better at something else however, you have chosen the route that makes you feel better about yourself in the short term? You and everyone else are missing out by failing to address your wider skill set and potential.

You are not comfortable with yourself

For me this is the biggest challenge. In order to succeed you need to accept who you are first. It is not your problem if someone doesn’t gravitate, understand or simply doesn’t get you. You cannot control what other people think and it is also none of your business how other people view you, be yourself and you’ll find your opportunities limitless. If you are guarded, worried and governed by others then you are setting yourself up to fail, we have all been there and it can be suffocating.

You let your fear of failure inhibit you

If you have failed then congratulations, you have tried something which wasn’t necessarily comfortable. Did you go back, address and learn from the situation or did you quit and stop trying because you couldn’t do it the first time? Two years ago, I tried running up a steep hill during a cross country run, I failed miserably and it was horrible. My legs screamed at me and I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs to cope. Two years on, I now run up mountains for some weird sense of enjoyment.

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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison

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I now use micro failures in everyday life to succeed. Working or training in discomfort is incredibly motivating and invigorating. When I fail I don’t look at it as failure, I see it as my next step to success: give it a try.

Will you consider challenging, channeling and embracing your failures in 2016? If you challenge yourself in the right ways and fail, you might end up having a great year and bringing others into your journey.

There is a case to say that if you are not failing you are not challenging yourself. This is of course fine if you want to keep up with the Jones’s but in your career for example, working in discomfort should be an inbuilt mandatory requirement, should you want to succeed. One of the very reasons I take a freezing shower by the way — discomfort.

If you don’t believe me then write a failure list at the end of the week. If your list is empty I guarantee that your week has mirrored many previous weeks before that. The short term will be fine however, in the long term your own personal self-worth might start to deteriorate.

You can follow me on Twitter & about.me if you wish.

https://about.me/luke.webber https://twitter.com/webber_luke