~~ From (THE CROW)
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Ok! I want to ask you all a question. And us being just three days into the New Year, I think it's perfect timing to confront your answer to the following: What would your life look like if you KNEW that failure did not exist? It wasn't even a concept that held any tangible meaning for you. Would you still be at your current job/career? Where would you be living of your choice not limited to ANYWHERE in the world? How many fantastic ideas and wonderful businesses would have you started that could assist and support real world problems we all face? The possibilities seem endless, don't they?!
I recently came across a truly paradigm shifting video from ‘Business Insider’ that was both fascinating and struck a chord that I had such a strong urge to share with all of you!
The video was an interview with the CEO and Founder of the company SPANX, Sara Blakely. For those of you unfamiliar, SPANX is an uber successful women's fine apparel company that has been the talk of the Silicon Valley set for a number of years. Sara is a true icon and trailblazer in her industry. And after devouring this video several times, it is quite apparent why she had the intestinal fortitude to strike out on her own engaging the fear of failure as a lexicon of the unimaginable.
The interview starts with Sara retelling stories of her childhood dinner conversations as her dad would pepper her and her brother with a singular question each and every week. That being, “So tell me, what did you fail at this week?” Quite an unusual declaration by most parents standards and certainly antithetical to the information most parents are seeking to ascertain. Such as, so tell me how how your week went?! Anything great happen?! Or, were my parents the only ones to ask that ?! LOL
But there was a definite method behind his intention of this form of questioning, that formed a core sense of strength and reframing of the notion of failure for Sara and her brother. Sara recalls telling her dad, “Dad, dad, I tried out for cheerleading this week and I failed miserably. I was horrible!”
To which her dad would retort, without skipping a beat, “Give me a high five, way to go!!”
Sara said that as unconventional as this may seem, it actually helped her reframe her definition of failure. “Failure for me became NOT TRYING, and not just the OUTCOME.” she said. She continues by saying , “So many people don't start that business, don't go out and create the art they want to create, or try out for the play they want to be in. Or whatever it is, all from the FEAR OF FAILURE. Once YOU REFRAME THAT FOR YOURSELF AND BELIEVE THAT FAILURE IS ONLY NOT TRYING, life starts to open up,” she said.
Now here is where her father doled out the SECRET SAUCE to this paradigm shift. He would tell her that anytime she felt she had failed, or got embarrassed by a certain situation, to come home that night, and WRITE DOWN THE HIDDEN GIFTS IN THAT EXPERIENCE!
Sara said that after putting this into practice, she realized that there was a hidden NUGGET of wisdom that she wouldn't have wanted to pass up. An experience of truth and wisdom for her Heroine's Journey.
“At SPANX, to encourage people to fail, I am bringing up my failures in front of the team often. I call them OOPS. And at the end of the day, if you can learn from it, and laugh about it, than it was all worth it!” she espoused.
Personally, I absolutely Love, Love, Love (you get the idea lol) the idea of reinterpreting the term Failure as an OOPS. Is it just me, or doesn't that shift FEEL SO MUCH BETTER?!?
I have a suggestion for all you New Age Nerds! What would it look like if you each did just ONE thing a week that absolutely scared the JOOJOO out of you. And make sure to remember that the only TRUE form of Failure is not trying. For as famed and inspirational author Robert Allen said, "THERE IS NO FAILURE. ONLY FEEDBACK." As long as you TRY----- BOOM!!
I am interested to see the miracles that start to manifest into your lives by incorporating this Paradigm shift into your daily DOINGNESS!
Nerdmaste,
Jeffrey Louis Martinez
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