I have a private Facebook group for all my current, and past training clients. I typically keep the things I share in that group, in that group. That’s the benefit of it.
However, yesterday I shared something in there that I want to share with you too.
I want to share it because it’s been a powerful thing for me, and I believe it has the potential to change your entire perspective and approach to your weight loss, fitness, and health related goals.
So what is it? Failure.
That’s it. Bye.
Just kidding.
I’ve been doing a lot uncomfortable growth lately. Not physically. I had that kind of growth in 7th grade. I can remember sitting in Mr. Ogawa’s social studies class, barely able to sit still because my legs ached so bad.
This growth is different, and not quite as miserable.
The concept of failure is one I have always avoided in the past. I would spend forever on a project in the name of perfection. I would tinker, and adjust, and tweak to get it just perfect before I would ever dream of doing anything with it.
The result? I never did anything with most of those projects. I spent a lot of time working on things that I could never use because I was afraid they would fail. That they wouldn’t be well received. That it would reflect on me as a failure.
My fear of failure kept me from doing the things I wanted to do.
Whether that was release a product, write a new blog, chase a personal best in a specific lift, or try to make a sale, the possibility of failure would usually keep me from ever attempting.
My fear of failure placed me smack dab in the middle of the biggest failure of all-never even trying.
This growth that I mentioned? It’s the challenge of embracing failure. Not chasing it, but understanding that failing is an incredibly important part of the journey to any kind of improvement.
Failing is the lesson learned. Did you screw up step 1? Good! Now you know how to do it differently, how to do it correctly, and move on to step 2.
Or you could plan, and prepare, and fret over figuring out how to do step 1 perfectly the first time, and never give it a shot. The result? Forget about any substantial progress…you’re never getting past step 1.
We tend to make massive assumptions about those who have gone on to accomplish the things we hope to accomplish.
We see someone who has been successful in their profession, and assume they have been lucky and their path has been success after success.
We see someone who eats healthy most of the time, and assume it’s easy for them, that they don’t crave sweets, and must naturally have incredible self-discipline.
We see someone who goes to the gym regularly, and assume they have more free time than us, and that they must really love going.
We see someone who has lost a substantial amount of weight, and we assume they must have a faster metabolism, and access to opportunities we haven’t.
We have no idea how wrong we are.
That successful professional? They had three businesses fail before this one, and have lost 5 times more sales than they’ve closed.
That healthy eater? They spent years changing their habits. They were incredibly inconsistent at first, and have had many days where they said “screw it”, and fell off the wagon.
The regular gym-goer? They don’t enjoy it as often as they do enjoy it, and they have skipped going on many mornings simply because they didn’t feel like it.
The successful weight-loser? Over the last several years, they have regained more pounds than they can count.
So what’s the difference? They’ve embraced failure. They understand that failing isn’t the end, it’s just part of the process. It’s a chance to learn how to do something better the next time around.
The road to success is paved with failure.
You can embrace it, or you can avoid it. Those are your options.
My challenge to you is to join me in owning it. Embracing it. Let’s learn from it. It’s the only way we’re ever get to where we want to go.
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