Fail and Fail Often

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With each new year, there are new challenges, successes, and failures to be had. Looking back at 2016, I had my share of each. But I am most thankful for my failures and I encourage you to fail more often in 2017. I think most will agree that failure is usually not a fun or enjoyable process. Failure can be uncomfortable and embarrassing; so most of us tend avoid scenarios in which we might fail or quit before we fail. But in order to learn, grow, and succeed we need to fail and fail often. Don’t be afraid to jump into a new project with both feet and put yourself in a sink or swim situation.

To get the most from each failure, we need resilience and the right mindset. Eric Greitens, in his book, Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life, gives a fantastic definition and way to think of resilience:

When people hear the word “resilience,” they often think of “bouncing back”…when we think “bouncing back,” we’re thinking physics…the problem is that most of life just isn’t as black and white as Newtonian physics…most people think…that resilience means “recovery” or “bouncing back” after stress. They think that resilient people are the same before and after hardship…We cannot bounce back because we cannot go back in time to the people we used to be…Fortunately, to be resilient we don’t need to go back in time. What happens to us becomes a part of us. Resilient people do not bounce back from hard experiences; they find healthy ways to integrate them into their lives (Greitens, Eric. "Letter 3: What Is Resilience?" Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life. Boston: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. 22-23. Print).

Failure and rejection have so much to teach all of us and are key ingredients of success. The real trick is to have and maintain a resilient mindset to see failure, learn lessons from it, and implement those lessons.

History is shaped by resilient people. People who experienced failure, learned from it, and applied their new found wisdom to advance towards success. Take for example Thomas Edison, who famously stated, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”. Edison changed the course of human nature by failing tens of thousands of times, learning from failure, and applying his new found wisdom to his next attempt. It was his mindset that allowed him to grow and succeed.

Roger Banister is another example worth noting. Until 1945, it was thought to be physically impossible for a human to run a sub 4 minute mile. Roger Bannister broke this record and shocked the world by doing the impossible. Within the next year, another runner had done the same and since then, others have gone on to run even faster miles. Bannister’s running career had failures that most people wouldn’t expect from the man who broke an unthinkable record. He didn’t even medal in his Olympic event. But Bannister wouldn’t have shown the world that it was possible to break the 4 minute mile, if he had shied away from failure or fear of failing.

So what do these anecdotes teach us about failure, success, and mindset? Our mindset is everything. Edison harnessed electricity in a way that changed the course of human history. Bannister set out to do something thought to be physically impossible. If either had a “weak” mindset, a mindset focused on avoiding discomfort and failure, they wouldn’t have even attempted what they had set out to do. Edison and Bannister, like other successful figures, had resilient mindsets, and embraced discomfort in order to learn and grow from failure.

Resilient mindsets allow us to put discomfort and fear of failure in their place. Pain and discomfort are usually temporary, but the lessons we learn from failure stick with us forever and change us. It is our decision whether our failures make us weaker or stronger. We often look at really successful people and don’t see all of the failures they have experienced and chances they took. But what made most of these people so successful is their ability to fail, learn from it, and use those lessons to improve and become more successful. As Winston Churchill put it, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”.

Do not be afraid to fail. Success is a journey which is riddled with failures and discomfort. Keep a strong mindset and know that failure can make you stronger and more successful, if you choose to grow. I am so thankful for my failures and the adversity I have faced; they shaped me into the person I am today and have pushed me to grow. We are all going to be in uncomfortable situations where we are debating whether or not to try something and risk failure. So next time you are in this type of situation, try this…

1. Take a few deep breaths, slow down your heart rate, and get into a focused state.

2. Look at the big picture, the view from 30,000 ft up. There is a lot to learn from these situations.

3. Make the decision, commit, and jump in with both feet.

4. Don’t second guess your decision and keep the bigger picture front and center in your mind.

Growth and failure go hand-in-hand with success and begins with the choice to learn and apply our new skills, knowledge, and wisdom. So jump in with both feet, fail often, learn from failure, and put into action what you have learned.

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway