Fail
Sorry, to disappoint you from the bat. I make mistakes. I fail. And I would be lying if I said that I don’t mind failing or that it is easy. It is actually really hard to fail. Mainly because it means I am doing something that I haven’t mastered yet and that I am putting myself outside of my comfort zone. But with a purpose. Because what means failing anyway? To me it means trying something (new). Trying to make progress in a new skill or growing myself as a person in general. Therefore, failing will always be uncomfortable to me and come with some (be real now, a lot of) anxiety, but if I learn at least something or come closer to my bigger vision of life than it is worth it.
Fail now
Just start. Honestly, it is easy to get stuck in an idea, but then not do it. Yet, the only way to test is and develop it further is to start with it. Even if I don’t know how or whether it is perfect. I always hold onto the fact, that everyone always just tries their best. And as long as I just try my best, that is all I can do. You cannot fail if you don’t take that first step. Read my other blog post about ‘Firsts’
Fail fast
How do I know whether I failed? Analysis and feedback. Of course, I can use my own eyes and brain (and google) to figure out whether something works the way I want it to or whether it doesn’t (yet). However, I recognize that my own capacity is limited and that I have a specific reference to the world around me. Therefore, I love feedback from others. They can provide new insight or little details, I haven’t thought about. This way you can fail faster and get more progress in sooner. At first, I found it super scary to share work in progress with others, because of the criticism I would expect. But I tried to change the narrative about this, and see it as constructive notes to take in that will only help me to fail faster. Read my other blog post about ‘Narrative’
Fail respectful
Failing is ok, so I can just do whatever I want now without regarding anyone else. Sorry, to pop your bubble. But that is not how it works. To me there are some preconditions to make failing be fruitful. So that failing won’t turn me into a failure… if that makes any sense… Until this point, I have figured out these preconditions: do my best, listen to feedback, be respectful to others and take responsibility. Ok, so these might be a little abstract or vague and possibly very closely linked. I feel that the responsibility part, is one of the biggest ones for me. I might just write another blog post about that soon. Since taking responsibility is also important while dealing with back pain. Anyways, because I don’t always know whether my fail will influence anyone in any way, I need to be able to take responsibility after a fail and see how I can rectify or build onto my fail in the honor of progress. More about that next.
Fail in a direction
It helps to get some direction into the way I am failing. Like an article idea, a business plan, a yoga practice or just better relationships. Tying my failure to a direction or possible just an intention in life, helps. This way when I fail, I have a guideline to analyse what this failure has brought me. And I can decide to take a lesson from it for my next failure. Because I will never stop failing. I am wondering whether this thought is comforting to me in any way… Probably not.