Commit to Failure
November 20, 2007 by Donna Steinhorn
On the Thinksimplenow blog there’s a post on the 7 Habits of Highly Innovative People, and one of the habits includes:
‘Commit to Failure’ - “Commit yourself to taking enough risks that you will fail some of the time. If you’re not failing, we’re not doing something sufficiently difficult or creative.” -Scott Berkun
Coincidentally, on a call today we were discussing failure and how it’s a given that to succeed you have to feel free to fail. It occurred to me that we need to reframe failure as trial and error in the manner of children. If you have ever watched a child learn something new, they revel in trying, failing, and trying again until they succeed.
Now this is not a new concept, but it did get me to thinking. How would I approach things differently if I set out to fail? What if I decide to fail ten times before I succeed at something. I would certainly try things in different (dare I say wacky?) ways. If I wanted to write an article about New Year’s Resolutions (and I usually do) I might try writing it as a poem, or humorously, or graphically or in any number of ways other than my normal prose. If I was creating a website or putting together a workshop, I would certainly take more risks and try things differently.
I’m going to play with failure and risk/trial and error in the next month. Should be interesting to see what happens. And if you’re game, come think differently with me.
I think similarily…I don’t set out to fail, but I always ask myself, “now what’s the worst that could happen?”
My husband, who used to be a lead trainer for Tony Robbins for like 7 years always tells me that in order to grow, I have to expand my comfort circle. The only way I can do that is step outside of that line into the risky unknown. But once I’ve done that, my circle has just expanded. And how cool is that!
Tony used to always say, “if you don’t take risks, it’s like playing tennis with a 3 yr old for the rest of your life.”
“What’s the worst that can happen” can definitely make it easier to take the risk. And the question I keep asking myself is how do I completely reframe the idea of “risk” so that it’s a positive when it comes to trying new things, or doing things in a different way. Then I don’t even have to be concerned with my comfort circle…risk is inside the circle!
Thanks for mentioning our post here. Much encouraging. Will try to present much better.
Love & Gratitude,
Tina
Think Simple Now. ~ Clarity & Happiness