This is Your Year to Embrace Failure
Better to fail at something important than succeed at things that don’t matter
“Failing is a fact of life,” writes Sarah McVanel in her 2019 book, Flipside of Failing. “The appeal,” she adds, “is in the insight from failure, the becoming stronger, the growth you usually only see later, sometimes many years later, when you look back on that crisis point.”
Makes sense, right? In the moments or periods of failure (or not long after), we are flooded with feelings of disappointment, frustration and sometimes shame. With the passing of time, we find the psychological distance required to sift through the details as we’re far less attached to the emotions and more alert to the revealed wisdom. It’s at this point we can see not only what’s there to be learned, but also how we may have changed.
A version of this played out in my work life not all that long ago.
I had started my work as a professional coach about a decade ago, believing, as many coaches do, that my role was to help people accomplish their goals — specifically, to support them in clarifying their ambitions, coming up with options, making a commitment to (and a plan for) one or more options, and helping them be accountable on acting in the direction of their stated goals.
