Most of us don't set out looking to fail at anything. And we especially don’t want to be labeled as a failure. But maybe that is a mistake.

Failure can be useful. We can learn from it, gain new insights, and do better next time. The right kind of failures give us new information and teach us something that gets us closer to our goals.

Some live by the motto: If you aren't failing you aren't taking big enough risks. Said another way, if everything you try turns out exactly as planned and feels very comfortable, you probably aren't stretching yourself. And if you aren't stretching, you aren't growing.

A fairly common understanding of failure is setting a goal, but not achieving it. We tend to believe that knowing whether or not you achieved a goal is fairly simple and straightforward. It’s often based on data. But in truth, failure is often in the eye of the beholder.

Imagine yourself in each of these three scenarios and whether you'd consider yourself to have failed:

An experienced marathon runner sets a goal to run her next marathon in under three-and-a-half hours. This goal is a full 15 minutes shorter than her prior best time. She completes the marathon in 3 hours and 36 minutes. Besting her prior record by nine minutes.

A director seeks a promotion to EVP and competes against other internal and external candidates. He receives positive feedback. But He gets told that the leadership team felt that hiring an external person would demonstrate their commitment to innovation. A top young professional at an organization gets asked to prepare a presentation for a high-profile meeting. He submits what he considers to be an excellent presentation to his boss. The boss praises the work but substantially changes the slides before the big meeting.

Notice that the differentiator in all three of these failure analysis examples is an ideal we've set in our minds.

Measuring goal achievement can be a subjective and political activity. And in each of these examples above, you can sense that the individuals tried hard and performed well in their efforts.

Perhaps that common definition of being in failure mode as "not achieving a goal" isn't so accurate and straightforward, after all.

I can help you to put your desire to work. IF you are willing to join my coaching, whether group coaching or one on one coaching, please e-mail me at ravinpapiahleadership@gmail.com, or watsapp me on +23052507999

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