How are you celebrating this month?  We want to know!  Email Jeff  and share with us how you acknowledged one of our favorite holidays (noted on the calendar above) OR tell us about one of your own favorite unique holidays for the month.  We'll put everyone who responds into a drawing to win a copy of Jeff's CD The Art of "Relaxing on Command"

Breeding Success....One Failure at a Time

by Lisa Allen

Success….Failure….Loser….Winner.  Big words, those are.  Ask ten different people, most likely you’ll get ten different definitions.  Why, then, do so many of us unilaterally define “success” and “failure” as antonyms?
Think for a second about a huge brand or consumer product.  No, not just huge….H-U-G-E.  By definition, if everyone knows what it is, and that brand/product is making money, it must be successful, right?

I’m thinking of Coca Cola.  Undoubtedly one of the most recognizable brands of all time, with a H-U-G-E-L-Y successful product line.  Does that mean that Coca Cola has never failed?  Rewind back to 1992 when Coca Cola launched OK Soda with generational-relevant marketing slogans emblazoned right on the cans; to 2002 when they introduced Choglit, a chocolate-flavored milk drink test-marketed with Nestlé; or dig up information about Surge or everyone’s favorite failure “New Coke”.  At the 2006 Annual Meeting, Chairman and CEO  E. Neville Isdell said "You will see some failures. As we take more risks, this is something we must accept as part of the regeneration process."  

Point is, everyone fails.  Furthermore, everyone should aspire to fail.  If you’re not failing, you’re not really trying very hard, are you?  If everything you do succeeds, I’d venture to guess that you’re either fishing in the tiniest pond you can find, or you’re purposefully casting your rod dangerously close to home.
The real opportunity is choosing to learn from the failure rather than allowing it to define you.  Why did it fail? What can you do differently?  If you don’t know, ask whoever had a hand in the failure—might be your clients, your employees, your spouse, your banker.  Just like any other mistake, if we don’t know what it is, we can’t change it.
Granted, it takes effort and laser-like focus to keep from bemoaning the failure and celebrating the growth.  Part of that strategy goes back to the definitions we assign to these occurrences.  
A few steps to keep failure in perspective:

o Define the ultimate goal.  How do you get to where you’re going if you don’t know where that is?  Knowing that  the end goal is an accumulation of all the steps in the journey makes it easier to NOT beat yourself up for the inevitable misstep.
o Plan your work, and work your plan.  What do you need to do to get from where you are to where you want to be?  What skills do you need to hone?  What knowledge do you need acquire?  How are you going to do this?  List specific, measureable steps.
o Face the dragons.  There were inevitably be obstacles on the path to fulfillment—prepare for them.  Take a bit of time to brainstorm about where your current weaknesses are, and devise ways to overcome them.  For example, if finding time is an issue, make the tough decisions now:  get up an hour earlier, give up an hour of television, or cultivate small snippets of time by being super organized.  Find what works for you.
o Learn to bend.  Just as a tree must sway some with the wind in order to stay standing, you must sometimes bend so that you do not break.  Allowing yourself the latitude to sway sometimes is as necessary as knowing when to stand your ground.  Listen to your gut, treat yourself as you would a friend, and allow some sway time.
o Enjoy the journey.  The end goal may be the big prize, but the real accomplishment is being able to learn and enjoy along the way.  Don’t become so focused and intent on success that you miss all the fabulous lessons along the way.

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” ~ Bill Gates.

 

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE ON YOUR WEBSITE OR IN YOUR EZINE?  No problem, as long as you include this complete statement with it: Lisa Allen, is the Executive Director and coach at Nothing By Chance Coaching.  After years of working in diverse careers such as sales, business and as a paralegal, Lisa has honed her skills as a business and personal excellence caoch.  If you're ready to transition from where you are to where you want to be, visit Lisa at www.nothingbychancecoaching.com