Happy Sunday Everyone:
I have a particularly large amount of gratitude in my heart today. Why? no clue, but it feels good regardless.
I was out for a long walk on Tuesday early in the morning listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Ed Mylett. He was interviewing Sean Casey. Sean Casey played in the MLB for 12 years, 3 of which he was an all-star. Remarkable story, awesome guy, had one $1000 scholarship out of high school and then did what he did. As I was listening, he made an off the cuff statement of “failure is feedback”. He was talking about batting. Baseball, as I’m sure most of you know is known as the game of failure. You make it to the hall of fame if your batting average shows that you only fail 70% of the time at the plate. Kind of amazing. I went back, replayed it, turned it off, walked in silence, and though about “failure is feedback”.
Failure sounds so negative and it is, definition of failure is “lack of success”, but I think there are two types of failure, one of which is positive. The positive side of failure is what you learn from your efforts. If you can fail through effort, if you cannot take it too personally, if you can learn from the fail, you come back stronger, better, more knowledgeable, more confident, more refined, more developed, more experienced, more professional, more better. If I had this mindset all the time, I’m not sure where the heck I’d be. To fail with effort is actually a very liberating thing. It truly does give you feedback you need to be better, to learn, to grow, and to implement change. When I think of failure as feedback, it takes away most of the negative, it reframes how I look at the fail. Its truly the ultimate example of a growth vs. fixed mindset.
The negative side of failure is the lack of effort, to never attempt something in the first place. This is the failure that leaves you on your couch dreaming of something you have no intention of actually executing on. I’ve been on both sides of failure. I can tell you firsthand the pain of regret for quitting on something, or never attempting something is far worse than the pain of failure when I applied effort. On one side you’re slowly eating away at any confidence you have on the other you’re building a foundation of confidence and trust in yourself. I’m more aware today than ever in my life how important it is to trust myself and apply my best efforts in anything I deem important in my life. As long as I’m applying my best effort, I’m okay with learning from the fail.
I wish I had heard this comment earlier in my life to put more meaning on both sides of the fail line. My boys are going to get an earful.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!