And Quit Beating Yourself Up About It!
There’s a saying in skiing that if you don’t fall you’re not pushing yourself, which my dad annoyingly repeated to me over and over again as a kid on the ski slopes of Colorado. And not only did he expect me to fall, he made me get up by myself! He would walk up the mountain on his skis, stand right next to me and tell me what to do; how to untangle my legs, put my ski back on while standing sideways on the mountain, un-fog my wet goggles so I could see. I was miserable.
As a mother myself I can now see how patient he actually was, waiting for my wailing tears to stop and discouraging me from sliding down the mountain on my butt instead of skiing after the crash. He wanted me to be confident in myself so that I knew I was strong enough to get out of any situation.
Failing is a stepping stone to success
Through my tears and grumbling with each fall, my dad taught me an important lesson – falling is OK. It is, in fact, expected if you want to get better. What is also expected is that I pick myself back up, don’t rely on anyone else to bail me out, and get on my way down the mountain and not catch a ride with a snowmobile (which I only did once when I tried snowboarding).
If you’re not falling you’re not pushing yourself is an important lesson for all entrepreneurs and for anyone that is cutting Fresh Tracks. You will fall. You will fail. It is expected and in fact good because if you aren’t falling you aren’t growing. You aren’t pushing yourself and your goals are probably not stretching you enough. The last lesson, it’s up to you to pick yourself back up.
Because no one else gives a shit.
Failure is a part of your growth and is a necessary and unavoidable part of the Fresh Tracks process. As humans it’s natural to want to avoid the pain and fear involved in falling. We hide our failures from others in shame and it’s not usually talked about so we don’t see how others are falling along their way too. We see the success of others, but not the long, painful journey they endured to get there. We try at all costs to master things without experiencing the emotional roller coaster that goes along with true growth.
We can intellectualize failing and get that it’s going to happen, but when it actually happens it’s a lot harder than we can ever expect it to be and many good people end up quitting. When you are skiing and you fall you get wet. Snow gets in your gloves and down your back. It’s gets in your goggles and fogs them up. It takes time, patience, and occasionally a spare pair of gloves to swap out to continue on through the day.
How can you best endure the dips and falls of creating your Fresh Tracks? Start by developing a sense of trust in yourself – you know your next step. When you do this your intuition gets stronger and you are more able to bounce back quickly from the setbacks you are destined to experience. Worrying about failing is only going to make you feels worse, so don’t focus on it.
Trust yourself not that you won’t fail, but that you’ll keep trying. There is an old saying that ‘businesses don’t go under, the owners quit’. I share that saying with you and ask you to apply that to your goals. Trusting yourself that you won’t quit is key factor in success and is what differentiates those that do accomplish what they want in life from those that don’t.
I have an in-depth training specifically on Worrying and How that is Really you Manifesting Disaster on the podcast Fresh Tracks with Kelly Robbins.
If this resonates with you and you want to discover more about creating your life with intention and purpose, I encourage you to step into the Your Dream Life free training and learn the 7 steps to creating Your Dream Life now!