Nobody ever bothers to teach you confidence that failure is a good thing. In fact, teachers and parents go out of their way to make us believe failure is horrible. Too bad they’re wrong.
John Maxwell wrote a book called: Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success. If it happens that you haven’t read it, I’d say give it a look-see. Here’s why…
Failure – making mistakes – is the number one way we have of learning how to get something right. Can you imagine giving your kid her first bicycle without training wheels? Or even better, skip the whole tricycle thing and put your kid straight onto a two-wheeler!
Nobody would do anything quite so daft, right? Why? Because we want out kids to build confidence, of course. But wait a second…even with the training wheels, don’t kids still manage to tip the bicycle over? They certainly tip from side to side until they learn to find their balance.
And after the training wheels come off, lots of kids still take time to adjust to riding without them, don’t they? Sure they do. That’s because their confidence reached a point where they can go without the training wheels, and then they have to work at building up skills to match their confidence.
Hey! Wait a second. “They have to build skills to match their confidence.” That sounds like they make mistakes and fail their way into success. In fact, that pretty much describes how we do everything in life.
Let’s take my day today as an example. Today I realised there is a lot of stuff I need to get done to launch the Kickstarter Campaign for Getting Happy…when you wish you were dead. More accurately, there’s a lot stuff I’m supposed to have done that isn’t done yet.
Oops. Looks like a failure. Then again, one of the things I’m working on is replacing the habit of self-sabotage. So recognising what I’m doing and fixing it is a good thing. So today’s failure is a lesson that makes me stronger. Talk about a silver lining, right? 🙂
My point is this: I have confidence in myself that I can
- write Getting Happy…when you wish you were dead and make it entertaining
- build a successful Kickstarter Campaign to raise the funds for publishing
- get radio interviews to help get the word out about the Kickstarter Campaign and the book
Okay. I’ve written six books, so I know those skills are in place. However, Getting Happy is a deeply personal, and emotional, manuscript so it’s harder to write. I have the confidence and need to build some additional skills.
I’ve had the privilege of working on several successful fundraising campaigns for non-profits (strange name, but that’s another story). This is my first Kickstarter Campaign. So I have the confidence and need to build some additional skills.
And I’ve done lots of radio interviews, but this is the first time I’m doing all the leg work and making the pitches directly to hosts and producers. Hmmm…seems like I have the confidence and need to build some skills.
Looks like there’s a pattern emerging. 🙂 And you can bet I’m going to make some mistakes along the way. What keeps me going is confidence. I know I can do this because I have your support and encouragement, and the basic skills. So I accept that I’ll make mistakes along the way to achieving success.
