You Failed. Congratulations!
Do you celebrate your victories? Your successes? Heck, some days it’s enough to celebrate just managing to get out of bed…after hitting the snooze button 7 times, right? Of course! It’s natural to want to give those moments their time to shine, stand out, and, to quote the film “Gladiator”, “…echo in eternity!”
What about your failures?
Now I’ve got your attention. What do you do with those? Drink them away? Analyze them for what went wrong? Figure out a way to ensure they never happen again?
How about this:
Do you celebrate them? If you’re like most of us, you probably don’t. However, it’s something the founder of Spanx has done. Yes….that Spanx. The founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, learned this…somewhat counterintuitive…approach to failures from her Dad.
Everyday at dinner her Dad would ask everyone at the dinner table, “What did you fail at today?” The reason? He wanted to inoculate his family against fear; he wanted to build their resistance. He didn’t want his daughter to grow up afraid to try new things. He wanted her and the family to never shy away from learning and growing.
So…if it’s good enough for Sara Blakely, one of Time magazine’s “Time 100” (Their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world), it’s probably something the rest of us might want to consider.
So, how can we integrate “celebrating our failures” into our daily lives? Here are a few suggestions:
Spend the last 10 minutes of your work day taking a moment to write out your successes AND your failures – what did you learn from them? Why was the risk worth it? Why are you grateful you failed?
Each morning – review the list you created the night before. Remember the lessons and what you learned. And then do better!
Or, start with your family, as Sara Blakely’s dad did all those years ago. Share your vulnerability with them, so they can echo their vulnerability back to you. Show them that you aren’t afraid, and that they shouldn’t be either. Be better, so they can live a better, braver life.
Good luck! Celebrate those failures and make today great!
