Embrace Failure
by Robert Brady
Writing an autobiography gives you a glimpse into your life: past, present, and future. Mostly an autobiography is reflective. Meaning that you're looking back at past events. However, you can also examine the mistakes you've made and write a future free of these mistakes.
In writing about my past, I always see areas for improvement. I feel that when I examine my life, my limitations pop out.
Maybe you're like me and you can still feel the embarrassment of particular episodes in your life.
But what is it about failures, even past failures, that embarrasses me so much? Why do I find it difficult to confront failure?
Staring in youth, we are programmed to see failure as bad. "Don't mess up!" "Don't miss any questions!" "Let's see A's on your report this quarter!"
In school, teachers reward only the kids who conform to their way of thinking. Experimenting with ideas outside the status quo brings failing grades.
But failing happens outside the classroom too. We feel like failures when we come up short to someone else's expectations.
All too many times, we turn over our own definitions of success to others. We all define success in every area of our lives, intentionally or not. If we don't have our own definition, we will find that we work on others' success and not our own.
It doesn't take us long to make a list of things that we're good at or that we feel comfortable doing. Once we've settled into the comfort zone, we don't try new things. We just don't. We're afraid to fail.
We're terrified.
Recently, I watched a paradigm shifting YouTube video about Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. Sara grew Spanx from $0 to a gazillion dollars. In the video, she explains that every Sunday dinner, her dad would ask each of the children how they had failed in the previous week.
Again, he would ask how they had failed. Not how they succeeded. Completely different questions.
Asking where someone succeeded in the past week can lead to a million answers. Typically, people succeed at everything they attempt. Why? Because they don't try anything new.
If you're not afraid of failing, you'll try new things. You'll find areas of success where you never dreamed possible.
Have you truly fallen short recently? Truly?
I'm not talking about going out just to fail.
I'm saying try something different. Try something out of your comfort zone.
18. There are infinite things at which to fail. What have you always wanted to try? Go out and try it. Now.
Review our discussion on Starting an Autobiography . Robert Brady's Autobiography Workshop is a fantastic resource for writing an autobiography . This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.
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