How often do we set out on a new project, personal aspiration or future plan only to fail, to not quite get there? If you are shaking your head saying ‘that’s not me’ – great – and, I’d recommend setting your goals even higher. For the rest of us, we may have followed all the golden rules of writing down our goals, positive affirmations, breaking down the actions into tiny bite sized pieces or having a clear vision of the end result; only to reach the deadline with our plan still half tackled and half eaten.
There is a perspective that we should only attempt what we hope to succeed in. Well, I’d like to offer you another perspective that we aim to fail in the hope of succeeding in more.
In coaching fear of failure can come hand in hand with fear of success. These fears can be limiting beliefs or gremlins at opposite ends of our personal potential spectrum. Sometimes if we don’t address the first we won’t achieve the second. So why is it so important to fail? Aiming to fail enables us to play with another and often freeing perspective, which encourages us to stretch beyond our personal limits, encounter key learning and open ourselves to new learned behaviour. Just think, failing comes about from action and how often does our fear of failure lead us to inaction.
Have you ever noticed what happens when you give yourself full permission to fail? Have you ever set the bar so high that you know you are going to bump right into it instead of soaring over? For most of us we take the easy route and simplest option in order to succeed, and as a result we limit ourselves. By setting our goal out of reach, over our heads and slightly out of sight, enables us to explore ourselves and the total experience it offers.
So, the next time you fix your goal, why not set your sights a little higher and see what you can learn from failing.