by Krista Rizzo, Certified Coach, Reinvention Expert, Speaker and Author
Yep, I said it — out loud. Here’s why… failure is nothing more than a learning opportunity.
Once you understand that, you have the ability to release the myth that failure is the worst thing that can happen to you, and then you can use it to your advantage. You see, back in the olden days (as my kids like to call it), failure was a bad thing.
If you failed a test you weren’t smart enough.
If you failed at a relationship, you weren’t good enough.
If you failed at a job, you weren’t skilled enough, you get the gist.
That’s when self-deprecation and doubt come out to play and can be very harmful to your confidence and your mental health.
What if instead of looking at failure as a negative, you reinvent it as a positive?
What if instead of failure being a bad thing, you reframe it as a good thing?
Failure is how you build your resilience
Wait, what? That’s right, resilience is not inherent in you, it’s a learned trait. From the day you’re born, you are learning how to “bounce back” from your negative experiences. How to pick yourself up and dust yourself off after a fall. You do it every day of your life. I started my business seven years ago, on a wing and a prayer — probably like most entrepreneurs do. Prior to going it on my own, I had a gazillion years of experience working in corporate, but zero when it came to working for myself. I can’t even count how many times I questioned (still sometimes do) my decisions. How many times I tried to convince myself that “getting a job” would be so much easier (probably right on that one)? And yet, here I am, years later, after falling down and dusting myself off time after time, getting up and jumping in day in and day out. Why? Because my failures are a huge part of my success. I’m addicted to learning. And every day, I learn something new about myself and my business. Every day, I put my feet on the ground and look forward to what’s coming.
Being a business owner isn’t for the faint of heart
It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’m a mom to two adolescent boys (that’s no cakewalk!). The reasons for me to quit are plentiful, but the reasons for me to keep going outweigh all of that noise. If I gave into the belief that failing is the worst thing ever, I would’ve quit a long time ago. Instead, I’ve reframed that farce and made it fuel my success. Now it’s your turn. Going forward, how will you reframe your challenges? Your mistakes? Your failures? What will you learn from them? How will you use them to fuel your success? I encourage you to take a minute to reflect on your experiences, the good and the bad. Think about how you may have done something differently if you didn’t attribute failure to be a bad thing. Would you have made a different choice in certain situations? Use those experiences as learning lessons, and then reinvent your definition of failure. I used to believe failure was a terrible thing — now I welcome the challenge.
Krista Rizzo
Krista Rizzo is a certified coach, reinvention expert, speaker and author, but she’s really a professional permission granter.
Through supportive coaching and facilitated culture change, Krista helps people and organizations to overcome struggle — releasing the myth of perfection and learning how to do the work in order to get to the other side. For more lessons on failure, watch her TEDx Talk and subscribe to her YouTube channel.
Comentários