...or so you've been conditioned to think...
We often chat failure on the Be You Find Happy podcast...
It’s been a hot topic in the therapy room.
People love to let their fear of failing prevent them from doing things in life.
Everything from buying a home, to changing jobs, to little things like skydiving (just kidding).
Ironically, failure is the “thing” that sets successful people apart from the rest.
If you aren’t failing, a lot, then you aren’t trying, and learning and experiencing.
Often we ask our youth “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Translation – you can only be one thing, pick well, don't change your mind and don’t screw up. Don’t fail.
However, the world’s most successful people have been MANY things.
They have attempted, and “failed” and learned and shook it off, and taken a new route. And as they walked their new road they used all the experience from the last adventure.
How much better would the world be, if we allowed ourselves the permission to be a lot of things? We certainly don’t question being “mother, daughter, cousin, sister, friend.”
How about we change the way we talk to ourselves, and the questions we ask others? What if when you were a kid someone said, “Tell me all the things you might like to experience when you grow up.”
How might you have lived your life knowing that you wouldn’t disappoint anyone, that trying a lot of different things (and failing perhaps) would be okay?
Failing isn’t a bad thing. Failing is living. It’s learning more about the WHO you are meant to be.
If you aren’t failing a lot, if you aren’t trying your hand at a lot of things, then you will never have success. If you don’t believe me, go ask Elon Musk. You may think PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, but rarely do hear about the other 50+ businesses he’s invested in or started and walked away from.
If you’d like to join in on these talks, meet us on Instagram, or check our site (real life, no filter, and ask us a question) or look for our podcast recordings. We will be talking this week about “not doing enough.”
Activity Prompt – Grab some paper and a pen (or your journal) and finish the sentence, "things I wish I'd tried...."
Maybe it's photography, writing a book, learning a foreign language...
Agree to try one of them, without fear of failure (because it’s a-ok to say nah, didn’t like it) and go for it!