We get so hyperfocused on omg, FAILURE.
Ugh.
Finger-pointing, excuses, project post-mortems, who screwed up, how could I be so dumb.
Wait.
Stop.
Failure in one area is success in another.
Flip the failure over. What succeeded?
No, I don’t mean in some sort of Pollyanna-ish, unicorns-rainbows-fairy-dust approach. (You really should know by now that I’m not a unicorns-rainbows-fairy-dust person.) This isn’t false positivity.
But in order for something to fail, something else must succeed. And when you understand the flip side of the failure, you can see what you need to do differently.
Did you succeed at flying by the seat of your pants?
Did you succeed at tuning out other people’s opinions?
Did you succeed at catching up with a friend from high school?
Maybe, then, you need to …
Plan better.
Listen more.
Restrict social media browsing.
These skills – flexible responses, ignoring nay-sayers, and maintaining relationships (see what I did there?) are valuable.
In the right place.
For instance, I’m great at group facilitation, responding to questions, managing discussion. And if I bury myself in the Facebook groups I belong to, my fellow group members may appreciate me, but … I’m not getting other, more-important work done.
So I can succeed very well at group engagement and support. But then I fail in other areas of my business that need tending if I’m actually going to have a business.
What are you succeeding at that may be leading to failure where it really matters?