Have you ever tried something and felt you failed? We all have. The more important question is “How did your response to that valiant attempt and perceived failure help you become wiser and stronger?”
When baby chicks are hatching from their eggs, they almost never break the shell on their first tap. They must peck over and over again to get the first crack and then continue until the shell falls away. If chicks never tried or gave up after the first “failed” attempt, their species would have become extinct ages ago.
Chicks’ repeated “failed” attempts at freedom allow them to develop the necessary strength and persistence to sustain life outside the egg. Like the butterfly who doesn’t benefit from being cut out of its cocoon, if chicks receive “help” in breaking free, they will die shortly after hatching because they won’t have the opportunity to build the strength they need to survive.
In your attempts—large and small—it’s essential that you give yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand, knowing that you may not reach your goal on the first (or even fiftieth) time.
In your perceived failures, you’ve already gained more glory, strength and character than if you had stayed in your comfort zone, wishing, wanting and waiting for another safer day.
There is no success without experimentation. And, by its very nature, experimentation includes the unknown and unpredictable, so it means being willing to try things that may not turn out the way you hoped, expected or planned. Just have the courage and faith to take the next baby step in whatever direction seems best.
The sooner you eliminate all of the paths that don’t lead to success, the sooner you’ll find your authentically glorious path to greatness. Courage isn’t a lack of fear or complete assurance that all will go well. Courage means being willing to dare and fail greatly, knowing that every experience, however painful, is an opportunity to increase wisdom and compassion for your self and others.
Failure is an illusion. There are no such things as mistakes or failures. Only things I tried that didn’t deliver the result I expected in the way and time I hoped. But some of my greatest learning experiences have come from what looked like my greatest fiascos. Sometimes, years after the event, I can see how things not going the way I planned proved a better path for revealing and advancing the highest good for all, in all, through all.
And so it is.
© Copyright 2015 DJW Life Coach LLC. All rights reserved.
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About djwlifecoach
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities.
During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll.
My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world.
111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness.
Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled.
Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else.
I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do.
By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire.
My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework.
For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.
Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! 