If at first you don’t succeed….you fail

So what!

No platitudes. Failure feels bad. Success feels good. But stasis feels numb, a false comfort. No question which feeling I want more of. But which do I want less of?

Comfortably numb is not a good place to be. Risking, acting and failing means I am getting closer to success. My first spin class, I thought I was going to cough up blood. My teeth actually hurt it was so hard. My first attempts at yoga were awkward, unbalanced and less than blissful. I fumbled through my first public speaking engagements, sales pitches and executive presentations.  My guitar playing is still basically a mess.

With practice I got better. In some areas I became truly fluent and quite successful.  I built on failure because failure produced feedback from which I learned. Some of the feedback was internal, some external. Frankly some was useful but not all.

I could tell you I love failing because it leads to learning and ultimately success. But that’s not true.  I am learning to embrace failure as a signpost that I am at least engaged in my purpose and vision and taking actions toward achieving them.