I’ve been enjoying the lovely weather lately;
I always feel like physical sunshine always increases my mental sunshine!
For this week’s mental sunshine I want to talk about the idea of risking failure.
Wait, what? Failure?
In an email about improving your mood?
Yes. Absolutely!
This ties in with an email I sent a few weeks ago about expanding your comfort zone.
How often do we avoid even attempting something because we think we might fail?
But here’s the thing – the possibility of failure is what makes things feel worthwhile.
And overcoming failure is what helps us to learn and grow.
And to experience that mental sunshine in our lives!
These days, with us all surrounded by social media posts about people’s achievements, failure seems like a thing of the past.
Everyone seems to be always winning, always succeeding.
Always living their best life.
We forget that human beings did not get to where we are by always succeeding.
For one thing, that would be very boring wouldn’t it!
We need a bit of struggle, a bit of risk, a bit of failure.
When we fail, we learn what doesn’t work.
We learn to refine our ideas and come back stronger.
If we never fail, success is not really success
What have we been striving against?
But also: we are scared of failure.
How many projects have been shelved, good ideas never implemented because we’re worried they wouldn’t work?
I might fail, therefore I won’t try.
Meanwhile, Clive Sinclair spent the 80s happily gadding about town in his C5!
That didn’t take off and become a massive success, but at least he risked it!
We’ve all met someone who “could have been great” if they’d just taken that risk.
Someone who almost wrote a book, but didn’t… because they weren’t sure it would be published.
Someone who could have played their sport professionally… but they didn’t because what if it all went wrong?
I’m not saying we should all take unwise risks where we tackle death-defying feats, risking life and limb…
But also: if you never try, you never know.
If toddlers gave up the first time they failed, the human race would still be collectively shuffling about on their bums!
We’ve all convinced ourselves that failing at something is the end of the story – but if you get back up and try again, it’s just another chapter.
Every time we fail, we learn to adapt; to change slightly and try again.
This makes us more flexible
It gives us faith in our ability to adapt, our resourcefulness
And when you’re more flexible and adaptable, life is less of a worry
There’s more mental sunshine when we’re less worried!