Experiments in Failure:

For the vast majority of us, failure is something that we avoid. We go to incredible lengths to make sure that we don’t make a misstep that will result in us failing. The amount of effort we put into this is amazing if you really look at it, and when it comes down to it, that effort is counterproductive. Experimentation is the only way that we learn, grow and find new things that will better our lives. The one constant that we can be assured of is that the vast majority of experiments fail. That is a truth in experimentation and it is because, by definition, an experiment is trying something new. We are not following a template that someone else has laid out or a system that is in place, we are attempting to create something new and when we create new things, we rack up a pile of failures in the process.

The important thing to remember in this process is that those failures are as much a learning and growing experience as any success is going to be. We learn very little from those things in life that work or that are handed to us in the form of a system or a template. Instead, we learn much more when we make mistakes and suffer the consequences. These things teach us vast lessons that we can take moving forward to better our methods and to finally reach those successful experiments. In this regard, we need to learn to embrace those failures and learn lessons from them that further our goals rather than lessons of fear.

Finally, the successes that come after all those failures are going to be the game changers for us. They are going to be the jewels in our lives that propel us along our path to our goals and only through embracing the failures along the way and refining our processes and thoughts will we be able  reach those successes. The failures are the groundwork that needs to be lead to build the successes we want in out lives.

What experiments will you put in place and fail at miserably as you reach for those successes? How are you going to learn and refine from those rather than let them breed fear and worry in you?