#7 Failure Is Only A Word
What do you think failure is? Is it merely a bump in the road on the way to your success or is it a wall stopping you cold?
I’ve been seriously rethinking my views on just what failure is and is not. Just recently I realized that I am now and continue to be an amazing failure!
I am a failure at being what other people think I should be.
I am a failure at thinking the way other people think I should think.
I am a failure at looking the way other people think I should look.
And I couldn’t be happier.
Not being what other people think I should be has given me the freedom to explore my life and my opportunities in different, innovative ways.
Not thinking the way other people think I should think has given me the freedom to explore self-education, alternative education and to have my education actually serve my needs.
Not looking the way other people think I should look as given me permission to be a unique individual with my own style and my own likes and dislikes.
Most of the dictionaries and 99% of society think of failure as a bad thing. I don’t happen to share their opinion. How could you possibly succeed if you don’t know how to fail? How would you recognize success, then? Look at Thomas Edison – he failed 10,000 times to make a light bulb. When asked how he felt about so many failures, he said “I have not failed, I have simply found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb.”
Go try something you’ve never done before. Give yourself permission to fail. That way, you get a lot more joy when you succeed! After all, if you’ve never done it before, you have nothing to compare it to and you decide whether you’ve failed at all! Failure is all in YOUR mind. How many people do you know that blow off compliments saying that they could have done better and then list excuses? Especially when they’ve done something you are aching to just achieve a 10th of? It’s all relative and it’s all so very personal.
I give you permission (if you need it) to go try something new this next week. Something you’ve never done before and know nothing about. Go ahead, have fun.
#8 Money Is A Tool; Not An End Result
If you’re in business just for the money, I wish you good luck. How often have you met entrepreneurs who are just after the almighty dollar? When you have business dealings with those folks, are they pleasant? Do you feel served? Do you even remotely feel as if they are interested in why you’re doing business with them? Or is it just how you’re going to pay for what you need? I try to remember this in my dealings with people when money is tight and I “have” to make a certain amount to pay a bill or something. I have often noticed that when I set up my business with the mental thought that I need a certain amount from a show or a client, I never make it. When I honestly don’t give a flying aerobic romantic maneuver on a rotating pastry, I do fine.
Customers can smell it on you. The need, the stress. The desperation to make a buck. This is not the way you want to succeed.
It’s what you do with the money you make that’s important. What difference you can make in the world with it. Look at Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump. Al Gore. They all made/make a lot of money, but once their living condition requirements are met, they begin looking at what they can do to improve those of others.
Money is energy. It’s a tool to use to leave a legacy. What will yours be?
Work well, play well, be well
db
Life Coaches, Portland, OR
