With the new calendar year now in full swing, how are you travelling in terms of the progress towards your 2015 goals and objectives? Are you starting to tick off small wins on the list you created in late 2014, or are you already starting to experience challenges, and dare I say it, experiencing failure already? If you are starting to experience failure, that is actually a good thing, contrary to what you may think. In fact, nothing worth achieving, will come easily – it will take work, it will take focus, and it will take persistence. Actually, success will reveal itself only through a series of failures! Now you may be sitting there thinking ‘what is this person on about?’, but stay with me – history is filled with successful people who created great movements, built strong companies, built powerful governments and achieved great outcomes, on the back of failure, and for many of them, many failures.
One of the most famous ‘failures’ is a man who lived during the 1800’s and in reading the following biographical timeline, you may know who this man is :
- in 1816, his family was forced out of their home and he had to work to support them
- in 1818, his mother died.
- in 1831, he failed in business
- in 1832, he ran for the state legislature, and lost. In the same year, he also lost his job
- in 1833, he borrowed money to start a new business. Within 12 months, he was bankrupt, and spent the next 17 years paying off his debt
- in 1835, he was engaged to be married, however his fiancé died
- in 1836, he suffered a total nervous breakdown and spent 6 months in bed
- in 1838, he sought to become speaker of the state legislature, but was defeated
- in 1840, he sought to become elector, but was defeated
- in 1843, he ran for Congress, and lost
- in 1846, he again ran for Congress, and won. Then in 1848, he ran for re-election, and lost
- in 1849, he sought the job of land officer in his home state, and was rejected
- in 1854, he ran for Senate of the United States, and lost
- in 1856, he sought the Vice Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention, and polled less than 100 votes
- in 1858, he ran for the US Senate again, and again he lost
- in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th President of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln never quit, and fully embraced the concept of failing towards success. He was quoted as saying “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”. Looking at the above timeline, it would have been very easy for him to quit a number of times, but instead, he continued on, he persisted, and he remained focussed on his objective.
So as you increase your momentum towards achieving your objectives for 2015, here are some key points to keep close at hand as you ‘fail’ your way to success :
Nothing is learned through success – the lessons come through challenges : achieving some small wins can lead you into a false sense of achievement, especially if the wins appear to be ‘easy’. Small wins are certainly good for building your confidence, but the major breakthroughs are going to come through pushing through the challenges and roadblocks placed in your path. If you are not currently faced with some challenges, perhaps you are not pushing hard enough forward!
Take risks, and encourage others to take risks : growth and expansion only comes through pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Encourage yourself and others to take calculated risks. In evaluating the risks, analyse the worst possible scenario, and if you are able to handle the worst possible scenario, move forward with confidence and persistence. Most importantly, when the risk does not pay off, avoid criticism and blame. Nothing stifles confidence and progress more than apportioning blame for a mistake made. Look for the lesson in the mistake, the seed of the opportunity that will enable you to move forward towards success.
‘Failure’ builds character & resilience : It is through embracing the challenges placed in front of you and ‘failing’ that will reveal and continue to build your character. Think of every ‘failure’ as a step forward on the path towards eventual success, and through taking the next step, and the step after that, you are building resilience. Nothing worth achieving is worth not paying a price for!
Success is not a straight road : how many times have you heard ‘success gurus’ pushing the barrow that success is easy, that it is a matter of placing one step in front of the other and you will arrive at success. Well the reality is that the road to success is anything but straight – in fact it is more like a tangled web of spaghetti, and often you will find yourself taking one step forward only to find that you then take 2 steps backward. Understand that, as Earl Nightingale said ‘success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal’, and the worthy ideal is very rarely sitting at the end of a straight path!
There is no such thing as ‘failure’ : this is a big one – but so true and when you understand it and embrace it, you will be unstoppable. This is about attitude and perspective, and is based on the belief that each ‘failure’ along the path to success is simply feedback to you on what hasn’t worked, yet. There is a concept we use in coaching which says that if something doesn’t work, then do something else, and when that doesn’t work, do something else. This is about feedback on what works and what doesn’t, and then adjusting accordingly. In fact, failure is only failure when you give up!
So as to continue to build momentum throughout 2015, understand that every challenge placed in front of you is a test ; a test of whether the goal you are seeking to achieve is worthwhile pursuing, a test as to whether you are serious about it, and understand that in order to achieve that big goal for 2015, you are going to have to ‘fail’ your way to achieving it. It may not be easy, it may require persistence and stamina on your behalf, but one thing will be certain – it will be worth it.
Embrace failure – get after your big goals for 2015 and may you encounter many challenges along the way – your future self will be so grateful for the experience!
To your leadership success.
Darren
Thank you for taking the time to read this post – I greatly appreciate it, and welcome comments and feedback. Please feel free to comment below, to follow me on LinkedIn, or to connect via Twitter or Facebook.
About : Darren is an Executive Coach, Leadership Consultant, Trainer, Facilitator, Speaker. A passionate and driven individual specialising in personal development, strategic planning, coaching for advocacy & enhanced performance, situational and servant based leadership, executive coaching of people leaders, emerging leaders and ‘high potential’ individual contributors within the Enterprise & Government market, personal change management, and strategic workshop facilitation & training.
