Redefining Failure

The following is an excerpt from David Cameron's e-book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money. It is a great reconceptualizaton of failure and this can help you avoid the fear of failure, a crippling emotion.

Most people have been programmed to fear failure. They give up to avoid failure, or they do not even attempt just so that they may not fail. Failure, however, is an illusion. Begin to see it as an illusion.

Failure, suffering, is an essential component to success. It is what helps you correct wrong thought if you approach it with an attitude of learning. Through failure, you learn how to succeed. By trying and failing, you refine your thought and point it ever closer to success. But this is so only if you do not give up.

Through failure, you get to know success and how to get there. How else would you know what success tastes like if you did not know what it does not taste like? And how would you get there without knowing how to? Think about that.

Failure is an integral part of success. Failure is actually a successive moment that leads to ultimate success. Failure is not the opposite of success, a separate entity from success.

Failure is success, it is the same thing but they are on different ends of that spectrum, the spectrum of achievement. It is just like hot and cold are different ends of the spectrum of temperature, or a thermometer. Failure and success are both different vibrations of the same thing.

Failure is not failure as such. It is only truly failure when you accept it as the end. But if you accept it as a blessed part of the process, a part that helps you succeed further, and know what this further success tastes like, then you can never ever possibly fail, ever. Failure is an illusion. Stop fearing it; love it for the gifts it brings you.

Taken from A Happy Pocket Full Of Money, pages 127 and 128 of 236 www.ImagesOfOne.com

Why We Say That We Can't Do Something

This is a direct quote from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and it's so true! I want to emblazon this into each brain of every student (and child) I've ever had:

Usually, when we say we can't do something, what we mean is that we won't do something unless we can guarantee that we'll do it perfectly (121).

She suggests completing this sentence: If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I would try......

In other words, I think we squash our creative impulse because we suspect it won't be a glorious success. In the case of students, at times they focus so much on getting the high grade (the superficial payment) that they don't risk trying something untried. Then again, there are those who simply want to slap down something, at the last minute. But they have the same fear. If I just turn in "whatever", I am not exposing myself to real criticism...it's obvious this is not close to my best effort.

Think of every project as work in progress. It will never be truly perfect, but it can be wonderful and each time we put effort into a project, we're becoming more human.

Make a list of the topics you like to read about.