For the longest time, I have strived for perfection in all that I do. That’s nice in concept. It isn’t very practical though and rarely produces any breakthrough results. I often end up taking too long to do things with “perfection” as my goal, and I regularly miss out on other opportunities while doing so.
Over the last few years, I’ve come to realize that I won’t fail simply from trying something new or different as long as I’m willing and able to learn from those experiences the next time around. To be honest, I don’t even believe in making mistakes anymore as long as I look at those supposed mistakes for what they are – experiments that may or may not produce my intended results.
Not everything turns out the way we want or intend it to. That does not make it a failure though. Life is about making choices based on the information available to us at the time, and then learning from those actions – whether they produce our intended results or not.
I’ve been married and divorced – not once but twice. Not all relationships turn into “happily ever after”, but that doesn’t make them mistakes either. I take great learning from who I’ve been in my past relationships and why they didn’t work out.
I’ve had my business turned upside down – not once but twice. That doesn’t necessarily make me a failure as a leader though as long as I can find the lessons to learn in those various experiences to do it better the next time around.
Well maybe the third time is the charm for me! I recently married my absolute soul mate and lifelong partner – the one I clearly was meant to spend the rest of my life with. While I wish I would have met her earlier in life, I would not have been ready for her if I had. And business is downright unbelievable. It literally could not be any better right now with all of the right puzzle pieces finally falling into place such that we can make out that picture that has been hiding amongst all the separate dots before.
None of this would be possible though without relating to life as a grand experiment rather than a pass/fail test. Did Thomas Edison – the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding over 1,000 US patents to his name – feel like a failure the first 10,000 times he tried to invent the light bulb? No. Instead, he reported confidently that he then knew 10,000 ways not to invent the light bulb. And yes soon after, he successfully perfected his grand experiment too.
Where are you coming up short in life and feeling like a failure? What lessons can you take away from those experiments? What would be possible for you if you did?
