This month's theme of the month is failure. "If you try and fail, congratulations! Most people don't even try." - Mike Tyson
Now we would all probably prefer to succeed instead of fail. It feels better, it's encouraging, boosts your self-confidence, etc. But the world is unpredictable and chaotic and full of people that are smarter than us, stronger than us, better than us at many, many things. And that's OKAY! I think we all get caught up in trying to be the best that we forget what is truly important - being our best. How can you ever ask anything more of yourself? And if your best happens to be THE best then good for you! But in order to appreciate the journey that brought us here today and made us the people that we are, we have to be thankful not only for the ups but also the downs. Not only the successes but also the failures. Keep in mind failure in itself is not the value, it is the lessons that we learn from failure and how we learn to adapt and grow that makes the failure so valuable.
So I want you to think for a moment, when was the last time you failed at something, how did it feel? Did you learn anything? And that last question is the most important because if the answer is no perhaps you could do a little more reflection. A paraphrase by Socrates reads "All I know is that I know nothing." So try to think a little more like that, be open minded and willing to learn anything from anyone. It's really not about who is right or wrong in any given situation, but more about learning from the experience itself.
Now I want you to think about the last time you thought "if I just had this or accomplished that I would finally be happy" and how you felt after accomplishing that goal. The success probably felt great but then were you satisfied for the rest of your life? Probably not. We are often innately searching for something more and as we continue along this path we realize "There really is no destination, there is only exploring, exploring, and exploring."- Unfu*k Yourself by Gary John Bishop
The challenge: try something new, different, unorthodox, or out of character each day and write one thing you learned from the experience. Consider things you are the most uncomfortable with or the least confident in and try to start with these first. Learn a new language, do a household task you might leave to the "pro" in your household, greet strangers on the street. Try something uncomfortable and experience stepping out of your box, experience failure, experience learning. It doesn't have to be different every day but seek out new challenges and PLEASE PLEASE FAIL FAIL AND FAIL SOME MORE. Just make sure you learn a lesson and move forward. Remember, failure deserves reflection not obsession. This month try to embrace discomfort, embrace change, embrace doubt and embrace failure.
One last quote for you and a throwback for some of you 90's babies: on The Magic School Bus before every adventure Mrs. Frizzle would say "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" I'm excited to hear about your journeys over this next month - thank you so much!
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