Waiting for happiness, peace of mind, love and satisfaction to come along without any effort on your part hasn’t worked up to now, has it? Instead, you can change your life through two simple strategies: You can redefine the way you feel about failure, and you can break your goals down into smaller parts.
We give too much power to failure. If you have the courage to keep trying no matter what, you'll discover that failure is neither fatal nor final. By changing your mindset, you can “fail” your way to the things you've always wanted.
Seeing your failures differently
Try seeing failure not as a result but as a step in a process. Look at it this way. A salesman makes calls on prospects and is met with rejection every time. But this is a smart salesman. He remembers the excuse every person gave him about why they wouldn't buy his product. He develops a logical, factual answer to each of those excuses. He's using those "failures" as steps to building a bullet-proof presentation. After a week or two, he's heard all the possible excuses, and he has an indisputable response for every one.
Now when a prospect gives an excuse, our salesman politely counters it with an irrefutable response. He makes a sale. He continues to analyze and refine the sales process. Because he was able to remain objective, he turned his failures from setbacks into lessons that led him to his goal.
Life is trial and error, too, but few of us are dispassionate enough to learn from our errors. Instead, we react emotionally, forgetting that each wrong step still takes us closer to our goal.
By doing something as simple as developing a thicker skin and learning from your failures, you can make tremendous strides forward. Each time you stumble, you're just eliminating another unworkable approach. When you rule out all the wrong answers, you'll eventually hit on the right one.
Success, one brick at a time
Now we go from our salesman example to that of a bricklayer. The tallest skyscrapers in the world are put up one brick at a time. The bricklayer doesn’t try to put up all the bricks at once, nor does he become discouraged because each brick is so small in relation to the size of the building. He knows that the bricks add up, first one story, then another.
In the same way, you can break your goals down into smaller sub-goals, like the stories in that building. As you accomplish small goals, you’ll get the confidence to continue, and, using your new outlook on failures as merely lessons, you’ll learn what not to do, and little by little, you’ll build upon your successes.
Don’t become discouraged because progress is slow. As long as you stay with it, you are making progress. Meeting minor goals will give you the incentive to move toward major ones.
Taken together and applied consistently, these two strategies form an unbeatable combination. Don’t be a life potato this year. Do, learn, adjust, then keep building on your successes. You’ll be amazed at the good things you can make happen.
