We have businesses, and we all know the struggle that comes with keeping them running. It’s even crazier when we reflect on what it takes to get our businesses off the ground.
It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
To be an entrepreneur in 2022 means to accept a life of consistent challenges. It’s true for running a business as well. There’s no planet where a business always has silky smooth operations; if there was I’m willing to bet we’d all go there.
I talk about a lot of things on my blog, whether it’s productivity, manifesting or success. All of these are things we need to talk about often, but something I don’t see discussed a lot is failure.
Failure means a lot of things to different people.
For some, it’s not achieving our goals or missing revenue targets. It can also include not doing as well as our rivals or worse — our business falling apart in front of our eyes.
What if I told you that what we call failure is simply a response? That how we see events does not directly translate to reality. That how we respond to our plans failing is what defines failure — it’s not failure until we decide to give up.
That’s why we’re going to talk about the benefits of failing forward and why it’s important.
You Are Not Ruled By Fear
There is no reward without taking risks, we know this.
To fail forward is to refuse to be afraid of failing. Forget about your rival earnings, forget about being in first or last place.
Concentrate on ruling your own life and finding joy in what you achieve with your business.
I get it, practically speaking there’s no way to improve our businesses without looking at what other people are doing. It’s part of research; I encourage research.
What I don’t encourage is letting fear come over us to the point where we don’t do anything. In my eyes, that’s what failure is; not trying or choosing to give up because we’re afraid of what other people will say if we don’t succeed.
Control Over Your Thoughts And Emotions
When you now know that failure is a response and not the end of the world, you can put your energy into what matters.
Failing forward means even if things don’t work out; you will work with what you have by the end of it. Instead of giving up, you use all the remaining energy to focus on the next part of your plan.
If a plan fails, you won’t make that a defining moment for your business but an opportunity to improve your business strategies.
Some people feel shame when things don’t work. It’s an emotional response connected with a sense of embarrassment; feeling as though the whole world is looking at them.
But let’s not kid ourselves. People have busy lives. They may notice us mess up but that doesn’t mean they’ll talk about it for the rest of their lives. And even if they do, so what? We’re goddesses — they’ll be gossiping about you whether you’re succeeding or “failing”.
Don’t be overcome by shame.
Instead, use failure as an opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t work. Keep doing this a couple of times and “failure” begins to look more and more like a joke. An amazing skill to have especially as an entrepreneur because there will be a lot of mistakes and a lot of setbacks. However, by the end of it all, you would have learnt a lot compared to people that refuse to take any chances.
There are many reasons to give up. Don’t let yourself be one of them.
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