If “failure” was just a label for not getting what you want yet, could you call it “feedback”, learn from it and keep moving forward until you get it?

Celebrating

Just last week I was celebrating for what I’ve accomplished with this podcast.

You see, I’m new to this.

This is the first time I’ve ever recorded myself, my material and published it for the world to hear… and getting to this point has been a challenge to which I’ve faced and overcome.

I’ve had to learn so much about what to talk about, how to talk, how to record good quality audio, how and where to publish.

It’s been a steep learning curve.

Not to mention overcoming those inner voices of doubt and fears of embarrassment that pop up from time to time.

So, last week I was celebrating that I’m now publishing and have my own podcast!

Disappointed

But this week, something switched.

I looked at the numbers and very few people are actually listening to my podcast.

I felt disappointed. I felt like a failure.

In this feeling of failure… looking through that lens, things seemed bleak.

Thoughts rushed into my head, like…

• Maybe people don’t like it…
• Maybe people don’t like you..
• What if you chose the wrong material?
• It’s not taking off.
• It’s failing.

We’ve all been caught in a downward spiral of negative thoughts, so you know what I mean.

Then it occurred to me…

It’s Feedback!

What if I see this as feedback, not failure?

In that instant, looking through the lens of ?feedback? the entire picture changed!

Now there were thoughts like…

• What are these numbers telling me?
• What can I improve?
• What’s the next step?

And the feeling was completely different.

I went from feeling down and despair, to curious, excited and energised to take action.

Takeaways

So here are the takeaways…

There’s no failure, only feedback.

Failure does not exist. It’s a concept or idea in our heads.

So why not choose a more positive idea that supports you in moving forward?

When we label an experience a failure, we normally stop and don’t look for what we can learn from it. Instead we tend to justify why we failed, so we don’t feel so bad.

But when we label an experience as feedback, it becomes a learning experience…

We can learn to do something different, to move closer to what we want.

Making A Light Bulb That Works

The classic story is that of Thomas Edison when he was making the light bulb.

Now I don’t know if this is 100% accurate, but as the story goes he took 1000 attempts before he made a bulb that worked.

On the 900th-or-so attempt, someone said, “Another failure.”

And Edison replied:

No, with each experiment I learn something new. I now know 900 ways it can not be done.

With each attempt he got closer to figuring out how to make the light bulb work and this mindset of “feedback” kept him going… and we’re all glad he did!

Best Chance Of Success

We may not always achieve what we set out to, but this mindset helps us rally our personal resources and gives us the greatest chance of success.

The Lens You Use

So, be aware of the lens through which you look at the world…

The meaning you put on some thing, some person, some situation, will colour your thoughts and feelings, and that will determine your decisions, actions and results.

It all starts with what you think it means to you.