Posts Tagged With ‘ failure recovery ’

I have read that the nightmare of standing on a stage, under bright performance lights, as the curtain rises and realizing that you are stark naked is more common than people imagine. Realizing the shared nature of that horrible dream should ease my shame around the stupid mistakes dotting the landscape of my life. But it doesn’t. My knee-jerk reaction when the memories of screwups float to the front of my brain is to dig a hole, crawl inside, and pull the dirt in on top of me. So programmed am I to feel shame about my mistakes that this vision of self-inflicted live burial is my go-to. Did... Continue Reading

Adults, who have returned to their parent’s home for any length of time for any possible reason, may resonate with this little story. On the surface, it’s simple, but the current of its implications runs deep. I was a fat kid. No getting around that. Eating my feelings was my standard approach to life going back as far as I can remember. Eventually, I ballooned to over 250 lbs. In high school, this meant I was the target of endless bullying. Desperation drove me to seek help from our family doctor, and a regime was proposed, which I grasped like a person drowning clings to a life preserver. I... Continue Reading

What Are the Benefits of Mental Fitness? ‍ Mental fitness is coping with stress, thinking positively, and responding effectively to challenging situations. It’s also known as emotional intelligence or resilience. Mental fitness has many benefits. It can reduce your risk of developing depression and anxiety, improve your self-awareness and help you make better decisions. It will also make you more confident, which can positively affect other areas of your life. Here are some ways that strong mental fitness will benefit you in the long run. Better quality of life If you have high mental fitness,... Continue Reading

Last week I wrote a few words positioning forgiveness as a starting point in my journey from a catastrophic face-plant to a fresh, new chapter in life. And this week, in both my work with coaching clients and in comments shared from readers, the topic of failure recovery has been top-of-mind. Then the Olympics kicked off, and the parade of dazzling, gold-tinged successes began marching across my monitors. Who doesn’t love a winner, right! The exciting thing about sports is that there is a pile of highly trained athletes who fail to take the top spot for every winner. The quantity of failures... Continue Reading

Compliments are powerful and very valuable. When was the last time you received a compliment? When was the last time you gave a compliment? Studies show that receiving a compliment has the same positive effect as receiving cash. So, here’s a few dozen compliments that suddenly seem very powerful and extremely valuable. You look amazing today. You are one smart cookie. You must make babies smile. You have great manners. I like your style. You have a delightful laugh. I appreciate everything you do. You are the most perfect you there is. You are strong. Your perspective is smart and refreshing. You’re... Continue Reading

Ever heard the axiom “if you want something done, ask a busy person”? My experience says it’s true. Busy people know how to manage their time and, when asked, can often squeeze one more thing into an already busy schedule. I have discovered something similar in my coaching work that is often equally true. People who know the pain of setbacks and failures are often the ones who step up fastest up to help those less fortunate. Why that is, I do not know. But I can tell you from my own life, at my darkest times, the only thing that brought relief from my pain was serving hot meals at a soup... Continue Reading

I don’t consider myself a technology geek by any stretch of the term, but from time to time, I dip my toe into the tech world and am rarely disappointed. While reading about the clutter of signals that surround us but are invisible to the human eye, I became aware of an app titled Architecture of Radio ($2.99). The app depicts in graphic, 3D renderings the layers of invisible reality pulsating and swirling around us all. “Created by Dutch information designer Richard Vijgen, Architecture of Radio visualizes OpenCellID‘s global open datasets from 7 million cell towers, 19 million Wi-Fi routers,... Continue Reading

A Bitter Mistake In the early 1870s, two brothers took over a London-based family business following their father’s death.  Anxious to make a great success, the brothers entered their product into a city-wide competition. One brother redesigned the bottle while the other designed and printed the label. When they realized the mistake, there was no time to change either the bottle or label size. They entered the contest but did not win. Disappointed but not surprised, they put their best faces on when one of the judges approached. Ignoring their apologies for the colossal mistake, the judge pointed... Continue Reading

According to the literature on the topic, on average, humans speak approximately 16,000 words each day. When you consider the average news article is around 800 words, the average blog post is between 250-300, and social media posts recommend between 60 and 150 words. With many, much longer, it is no surprise people feel buried in words. I certainly do. Borrowing from Mr. Churchill, I remind myself, my coaching clients, and everyone with whom I come in contact that, “Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal.” Easy words to recite (Churchill’s words flow off the tongue) but more... Continue Reading

Failure sucks. In its wake, doubt and fear undermine every waking hour. Fear of being viewed as “less than” cripples, we convince ourselves that everything we touch is doomed to the same “less-than” fate. We isolate to avoid judgment from others while we heap brutal critiques on our heads. We watch our world crumble as frustration, mingled with fear, become our only companions. There is no happy ending in sight. Whether from exhaustion or exasperation, a thought appears.   Something must change. But what? Then an idea. I can act, or I can continue to hide? Terrified, we put the decision... Continue Reading