Learn From Your Failures
Learning From Failure
WRITING PROMPT - What you learned from your last failure.
What have you learned from your mistakes?
What have you tried? That didn’t go the way you planned?
How did it make you feel to fail?
Why do you think you feel that way about failure?
BONUS CHALLENGE - Describe what changes you made to turn that failure into a win.
Failure comes in many forms. Even its meaning is vast, ranging from omission - to inability - to lack of success.
When we hear the word failure, we automatically think of it is a bad thing. But did you ever hear the term “learn from your mistakes”?
Failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Here is an example of what I mean by that.
About a year ago, I put together a free online workshop about rebuilding your relationships. I put in a lot of time and effort, but I didn’t give myself enough time to promote it or to practice with an audience.
Three weeks before the event, I added it to a ticket company and may have mentioned it on Facebook.
I had one person attend, and a few that couldn’t get into the platform. I should have practiced helping people get into the platform and I should’ve had people helping me with that part of the workshop. But I didn’t know that then.
I felt defeated and almost quit on the spot. But then I realized that one person made it through to the workshop. That one person deserved to get what they came for. So I continued on with the workshop.
She asked questions and said that she really learned a lot from the event. She was encouraging and told me what I could improve upon or what I could try to adapt for the next workshop to accommodate more people.
What did I learn from all of this?
I learned that just because a last minute approach is the way my business Coach does everything, that doesn’t mean it’s right for me.
I learned that I have the PR and marketing skills that I learned through the years. I also learned that even though the pandemic changed everything, you still need to plan and advertise events far enough in advance.
The coach told us that if we advertise too far in advance, people will forget about it. I know from experience that can be the case. However, I also know that you have to remind them, advertise often, and keep putting your event in places they will see it so that it stays relevant in their mind.
What did I learn from this failure? I learned to trust my own instincts. I learned that, even though some people do things differently, it doesn’t mean that their way is right for me.
I grew up in a time that people were trying to live their perfect life. A woman was supposed to be able to do it all. And most people lived by the words “failure is not an option.”
Those words were pounded into our brain so that we would keep striving to do better. The problem with this is that we have raised a generation of perfectionists; people who put so much pressure on themselves to look, feel, and do everything without mistakes. It caused anxiety, depression, and was an unrealistic goal to burden ourselves with.
Instead, I learned to go with the flow. I learned that there will be problems with everything. The difference between the anxiety-riddled perfectionist and the calm, easy-going person I want to be, is allowing myself to make mistakes and to learn from those failures.
I had to learn to give up trying to control everything.
I had to stop trying to be perfect and allow life to happen without my interference.
I had to learn to see every situation from other perspectives and to make adjustments in my own life to account for imperfection and free will.
Now I have an entire workshop planned and ready to go. I can advertise it, tweak it, and allow it to happen without needing it to be perfect.
I believe my clients will learn more if they know that I am a human being, who makes mistakes too. I learned that to be human is to be imperfect. And I'm learning to embrace my imperfections.
