Plan for Failure

“If you are not failing, your goals are not big enough.”

The only way to get better is to push ourselves beyond our current limits. When we push ourselves beyond our limits we will fail. We seem to understand this phenomenon in athletics. Weight lifters get stronger by lifting until failure and then giving their muscles time to recover and adapt to the new stresses. A similar system holds for all athletes.

But in the real world, we don’t like to fail. We believe it makes us look bad, so we play it safe and limit our growth.

There is a better way. Plan for failure and plan to recover. By setting our goals beyond our current reach we can expect some form of failure. By planning our recovery, we can make sure we get “back on the horse” and continue our progress. Persistence wins.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge

Calendar Your Habits – Time is the most precious resource we have. It is the only resource that is not renewable. We can earn back the money. We can rest and renew our energy and even rebuild broken relationships, but we can never get back a minute wasted.

Your calendar is your time budget. Use your calendar to spend your time on your most important habits and stick to it. Calendar your workouts, Bible study, sales calls, time with family and friends. The only way I consistently track my goals and make corrections to my plan is because I am sitting at my desk before work starts most days. When I sleep in and don’t get to my desk early, my exercise, habit tracking and quiet time mostly go undone.

If you are not sticking to your new habit, check your calendar. Have you created space for this new habit to live? If the habit is important enough to you, you’ll give it a regular spot on your calendar.

Have A Backup Goal – I was constantly failing to establish an exercise habit until I created a goal so small that the only way I was going to miss was if I decided to be lazy. I may miss my run or longer workout, but I can get on the floor and do some pushups. Floors are available everywhere. I have no excuse.

On my momentum tracker, I give myself a half-point for my mini-workout and a full point for thirty minutes or more. I want to do more and I plan to do more, but creating an exercise habit is more important than going big right out of the gate.

Find something that works for you. Insist on finding a win that you can do and don’t give up until you can create a string of wins. You can go for a bigger goal once the smaller one becomes a habit.

Celebrate Failure – You failed to accomplish your goal today? Congratulations. You must be really pushing yourself! Create positive self-talk whenever you miss a goal. Successful salespeople know the path to sales is through a string of “no’s”. Inventors know that another failure is a step closer to their goal.

“I have not failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

Enlist a Friend – We all become more like the people we spend time with. Choose your companions wisely. Find someone who is chasing a similar goal or someone who has accomplished what you aim to achieve. Ask if they will hold you accountable. That accountability can be a weekly call, email or even a text. Know what a measurable win is and report your numbers.

I am writing this article on a Saturday because my friends at the newspapers are expecting it. If they were not, my writing habit would get postponed.

Experiment With Your Environment – In a lot of ways, we are a product of our environment. Change what you can. Pack healthy snacks. Throw out junk food. Track your goals on a big calendar that is front of you at work every day.

If you are attempting something big, the most direct path is straight through failure. Be ready for it. Plan for it and plan to persist. Know that every struggle, every trial and every failure makes you stronger.

“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.”  – Sumner Redstone

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. –  James 1:2

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