Redefining Failure

[Dan Goodwin]

What does failure mean to you, in your creative life?

Most of the time we see failure as something negative and terrible, something to be avoided at all costs. So much so that it often chokes our ability to create anything at all.

Here are some alternative thoughts on failure:

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement." - C. S. Lewis

"There is no failure, only feedback." - Unknown

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simply really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that's where you'll find success..." - Thomas J. Watson

"Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have." - Unknown

"Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach." - Roger Von Oech

What are your thoughts and definitions of failure? How do those hold you back from trying more, from creating more?

How can you reframe or redefine your definition of failing to help you be more creative?

[WildCherry]

I feel like I am constantly working on my art in a way that makes me think "Why did I pick something so hard?" but at the end of it, as you say Alfredo, I've been stretched and even if its not 100% successful, when I go back to doing something that seemed hard before, it seems like a breeze in comparison!

[Nick]

I think this is not so much to do with the art as with our characters. People often ask me if keyboard or guitar is harder. I believe them to be the same. They will be as hard as it is for you to become as good as you have decided to become and I think this applies to just about any field.

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

I wouldn't call it so much character as attitude ... a "can do" attitude undoubtedly goes a lot further, so it only makes sense to try to develop that attitude. It does take courage to look honestly at the things that keep us from doing the best we can at what we love to do. It's what this site is all about, and it feels so much better to be more able to understand our selves. And another benefit is that once the self is better understood, other people are easier to understand, also :)

[Dan Goodwin]

I think that old maxim about the people who irritate or frustrate you most are those that reflect the elements of yourself you're not entirely happy with is true also. Like a mirror being held up to our own "could use a little work" areas...

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Very true! This has been said in many ways ...

you get what you resist the most

you spot it? you got it! (my personal fave :)

[Dan Goodwin]

Absolutely. I started learning salsa around Jan 07 and found it pretty tricky. Now I can dance without thinking at an intermediate-advanced level.

I took a beginners course in Argentine Tango recently. Really hard! Returning to salsa after was like slipping on my favourite Nike Airs after tiptoeing around on stilettoes for hours. But I know if I stuck with the Tango it'd get a lot easier very soon...

(The stilettoes comment was an analogy by the way, I don't actually wear them to dance tango... Or anything else!)

[Alfredo]

Would be a nightmare to walk in those! LOL

[Dan Goodwin]

One of my favourite Salsa partners, Sophie, dances in 3 inch heels sometimes. She's as good as she is in flat shoes or trainers. In fact it's a little better because it makes us about the same height!

Amazing, I'd sprain an ankle just trying to put them on!

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

not to mention the struggle of making sure the seams on your stockings were straight :) Sorry, couldn't resist! heh

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

I check out my horoscopes, tarot and I Ching online each morning and this is the one for today which has some interesting thoughts on failure, so I thought I'd post it here. Also interesting to me that it's number 47 :)



Barb's Personal Hexagram:
47: Oppression
Thursday, August 28th, 2008


General Meaning: The image of oppression conjures up a dried up lake bed with nettlesome crows stalking the shoreline. Hard times shrivel our spirits, and give rise to a multitude of "crows" in the form of troublesome worries. Times of great loss or personal failure break weaker people; but the strong of heart can bend with fate. To endure hard times - or even grow and benefit from them - it is essential to tap that deepest stratum of personal identity, that which is deeper even than fate, and which is incorruptible by even the harshest realities. It is essential, in other words, to tap the wellspring of human endurance: hope.

In a sense, there is no such thing as failure. There is only sweet and sour reality, and more is learned from the sour, oftentimes, than from the sweet. For failure, hard as it may be to swallow, opens the blinds to the real world, and reawakens the clarity of vision known only to those who have risked, and tasted, disappointment.

When in the throes of hard times, it is essential to be resolute and strong on the inside while remaining quietly cheerful on the outside. Avoid too much talking - except to your closest friends. Your words will have little effect on all others, since your influence will be at a low ebb - and they will drain you of vital energy. Strong silence is the most skillful posture when facing the public during adversity; it shows that your inner core is strong enough to withstand the current troubles, and suggests that your recovery will be complete. At the same time, talking openly to those you trust is equally important, for in times of calamity, talking is part of healing.

Keep in mind that failure - the final taboo in modern society - is but one part of the inevitable cycle of life for those who dare to live fully and completely. Never to fail at all is to fail in the biggest way - avoiding risk altogether, one cannot help but fall far short of what might have been.

[Dan Goodwin]

Thanks for this Barb, lots of wise words...

"For failure, hard as it may be to swallow, opens the blinds to the real world, and reawakens the clarity of vision known only to those who have risked, and tasted, disappointment."

and

"Keep in mind that failure - the final taboo in modern society - is but one part of the inevitable cycle of life for those who dare to live fully and completely. Never to fail at all is to fail in the biggest way - avoiding risk altogether, one cannot help but fall far short of what might have been."

ring loudest for me...

[Alfredo]

You know, my album was recently rejected by one of the top New Age/World radios. My promoter said the guy is somewhat of a jerk who is overly finicky. Not a month later my album topped the New Age Reporter Top 100 chart. This is, after Billboard, one of the largest charts for the New Age, World and Ambient genre of music. The following month, my album remained once again at the top for another month. So, I could have felt like a failure for not being accepted by this other radio, but I did not need them to get to the top and a few hundred other radios were loving my work. Of course, I am lucky in some way that I am shielded by a personal manager who sometimes tells me these things after the fact. By the time I found out about tis radio, I had already reached the top of the chart and the radio seemed less important! Suffice it to say, I would have been a bit crushed, regardless of how many other radios and networks were playing my work.

I remind myself that Harrison Ford was told early on he'd never make it, to go back to carpentry. Two years after that he run into that same agent at a dinner event and walked right past him as he went over to accept an award.