MY TWO CENTS:
Spring is upon us! I’m not sure what the indicator is for you, but for our family the indication is Little League baseball and softball starts. It might be 30°F and snowing sideways with wind whipping across the diamonds at 30 mph, but we know that spring is just around the corner!
Baseball and softball are games of failure. Some of the Hall of Fame baseball legends only got a hit 30% of the time. That means they failed at the plate somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of the time. My son’s baseball coach has told his team that baseball is the most humbling team sport they will ever play, because it puts your failure right in your face and out in the open for everyone to see.
Being so engaged with these sports as my kids grow up has helped me consider the lessons of life they are learning, that I can learn myself, and that I should more readily embrace. Understanding the role of failure in our lives is one of those lessons that has had an impact on me. I hope you’re encouraged to consider what failure means for your journey.
When was the last time you failed 70% of the time at something you were pursuing? How about 50% of the time? If you’re like me, your natural tendency is to shy away from that pursuit if you experience failure more than a handful of times. Yet, we know intuitively that we can’t be great at anything without first being only mediocre at best.
So, what keeps us from embracing failure? Is it fear of the pain of failure? Is it worry about the finality of failure? Is concern of the wasted time due to the failure? How about we…
- Choose to embrace the process of becoming great at our calling, which includes failure;
- Intentionally, purposefully, and powerfully visualize the joy of winning (overcoming the failure);
- Remembering that failure is only final when we quit trying to get better; and
- Speeding up our process so we can fail faster…and fail forward!
We’re all in this together. We have all failed at something important to us. As for me, I truly enjoy surrounding myself with people willing to embrace failure as a powerful tool to help them realize their full potential of adding value to those around them.
Make it a great week!
Scott Cousino, CFP®
President