A fact of life: Everybody Fails!

Failure is part of the success formula. People explore, initiate, and act of their hunches, intuitions, and information at hand. Most of the time they make mistakes, screw up, or fail. Gradually they cut out the stuff that didn’t work: (what they learned from failing), and keep what did work.

People should be encouraged to fail—its part of risk-taking, learning, and success. Adversity, setbacks, and failure are necessary for partners to succeed. There is a practical side of failure: partners learn from experience, become more resilient, and develop tougher hides. Many have taken the path of discovery and failed along the way only to try again, each time learning what not to do the next time.

Some famous examples are Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Oprah Winfrey, and Walt Disney.

What’s the difference between ventures or projects that succeed and those that don’t? Successful people, those who have learned to navigate through tough times and failure, think creatively about their mistakes. They learn, adapt, and act. They keep their focus on where they’re going. Failure spurs them on. They know that success is the best revenge.

People who become victims to failure take it personally, rather than as a learning opportunity. They tend to repeat patterns that pull them further off course into a downward spiral.

Bottom Line

• Everyone fails.
• It is not personal.
• The bigger the dream, the more partners fail.
• Learn to bounce back like a super ball.
• Control your emotions, especially anger and fear.
• Manage your thinking to stay focused and productive.
• Give yourself an “A” every time you fail; you’ve given yourself an opportunity to learn.

How much do you think to have to improve to be really successful?

• 100%
• 75%
• 50%
• 25%

You’ve probably heard of: Willie Shoemaker, the Jockey and Joe Namath, the Quarterback

What did it take to make them world champions, the best of the best, finishing first?

The Answer:

The difference between those who finished first in the world compared to the athlete who finished second was faster than most of us could “blink an eye.”

I’ve been thinking about the rest of us, the non-Olympians, you know, the average person who wants to win, who wants to figure out how to navigate toward success.

Here’s what I’ve come up with: Your success and victory will be gained through small improvements, around five percent at a time. Just think if you improved 5% each day, or even, each week. What would your results look like if:

* You made 5% more prospecting calls in sales a day
* You sent out 5% more “thank you’s” to satisfied customers
* You sent out 5% more personal notes each week to past clients saying, “I’ve been thinking about you and how you might be doing through these challenging times…..

Your Call to Action

* Choose a critical pathway to success and increase your action just 5% a week. Do it for 3 months.
* At the end of 3 months, check your results.

Bottom Line

* Be a World Champion and make a 5% effort.
* Make small daily victories.
* Navigate Toward Success.

In this blog and in future comments, my colleagues, Ken Lichtenstein and Judy Jackson( also my wife) and I will explore how people show up in their lives, what they could do to regain control over their circumstances. We will ask our readers questions and invite them to think about what they would do if they found themselves stuck, unsure of what to do, and what best practices they might offer others who want to live lives as Navigators. So stay tuned. Find out what happens to Jack and Beth.

Learn about being a Navigator. Find out if how you might be living life as a Victim or Low Level Survivor.

Actions to take:

We leave you with several questions:
1. What challenges are you facing that might be keeping you up at night?

2. In what ways might you be acting like a Victim?

3. Any best coping practices you can share?

4. Any questions you’d like to ask Moss, Ken or Judy?

Read Part I of this post

I recently had an opportunity to work with two individuals in a coaching situation. Their different ways of handling stress and worry point to an interesting observation. While they both are experiencing considerable tension in their lives, they bring different approaches to cope with their respective situations

Jack is a 36-year-old sales person who works in a family business. He is in considerable debt, miserable in his marriage, overweight, fights with his cousins who work in the business. He complains and blames others for his unhappiness. He accuses his father of being unfair and not giving him more sales opportunities or increasing his commission percentage.

He views his wife as a “burden to bear.” She spends too much, does a lousy job cleaning the house, wastes time on the phone, and doesn’t have sex with him enough. I’m sure you’ve heard versions of the same from people you know. Maybe you might see a little of yourself in his story.

Let’s look at Beth. Beth is a 40-year-old nurse. She does not like her current work situation. She describes her boss as demanding, aggressive, verbally abusive, dishonest and a “penny pincher.” While this might sound somewhat like Jack, Beth takes a different approach in terms of responsibility and personal power. She focuses on the fact that she is the one who chose to work with him, is aware that she can accommodate and give in too much in order to keep the peace, and internalize her emotional feelings to the point of having stomach aches and fatigue. She realizes that she does not have to remain in his office, can assert herself more powerfully and learn to stand up for herself and say “NO” every once in a while. Beth looks at her future and what options she might have.

So, what’s the difference between Jack and Beth in terms of how they choose to cope with their circumstances? Beth sees that she has a choice. Jack feels trapped with no other option but to rail against his perceived enemies. Beth is what I call a Survivor on her way to becoming a Navigator. Jack is a Victim. Beth takes responsibility, Jack blames. Beth thinks about what she can do to change the quality of her life, Jack looks for revenge. Beth is a visionary, someone looking for a better future, Jack is a prisoner to his past.

Read Part II of this post