It’s Only Failing Until You Figure It Out

“It’s only failing until you figure it out.”

I wrote that sentence while journaling recently. The tone of which it came to me was very playful and light - a stark contrast to the mood I was in.

I paused when the words appeared on the paper. Slowly, as I contemplated them, the power of those words broke through my cloud of failure doom-and-gloom.

Let’s break it down word-by-word to see why that statement is so powerful to me!

“IT’S only failing…” YOU are NOT a failure. This thing you are doing just isn’t working out. YOU are not wrong, inherently flawed, or hopeless as a human being.

→ Next time you are feeling like YOU are a failure, redirect it towards the behavior or action you feel is not working. Remind yourself that you are BIGGER than that aspect of your life! SO MUCH BIGGER! Now you call to your higher thinking faculties and actually give yourself a better chance at succeeding.

“It’s ONLY failing…” Failure is everywhere. We all fail all the time. It’s a natural part of striving for anything. We wear it like a badge of shame instead of a badge of bravery. (Now I want to create failure badges of bravery!)

→ Next time you are feeling shame about failing in some aspect of your life, see what happens when you tell yourself, “Wow! You are really trying to do something here!” For me, it makes me say, “Hell yeah I am!” And then I feel ready to get back on the horse and give it another go.

“It’s only FAILING…” Failing is in process. You haven’t failED. This thing is still going as long as you are still going for it. Nothing is said-and-done here! Opportunity and potential are still ripe!

→ Next time you want to prematurely quit, ask yourself WHY it was important for you to try to do it in the first place. Perhaps that can give you that spark of perseverance! When we overcome challenges, it’s the persevering that we are most proud of and that grew us - not the easy stuff!

Ok, I’m going to keep the rest together: “It’s only failing UNTIL YOU FIGURE IT OUT.”

In other words, if you keep going, you are so likely to figure something out. It may not be exactly what you expected, but persevering only brings insight, breakthroughs, important lessons if we train our lens to see it. It’s inevitable that this will lead you somewhere good if you keep going and looking with such a lens.

→ Next time you feel tired of persevering, ask yourself how you can make the process a bit more playful and fun for you! Figuring it out isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be a constant unenjoyable grind either! In fact, if it is, you might be caught up in a lot of “shoulds” and need to find your own rules about how to do it!

If you are struggling with feeling like a failure in your creative ventures, you are not alone. We ALL go through it or are in it in some way.

Here is a Sistermind Roundtable event you can listen to called Real Talk About Success. I and five other amazing women in business share our struggles and how we have managed to find successes in brief, 10-minute presentations. (And, if you want to see the rules I mention, you can view them here.)

Keep going Creative. Your creative work is calling you for a reason!

★ Creative Challenge ★ Grab your doodling materials and watch my 10-minute presentation (the first one). Follow the doodling prompts for insight into your path to success! What rules would you create your playbook with?