Never lunge for the ball.
If you make a bad throw, just let it drop. Then start over.
Learning to juggle taught me how to handle life: sometimes you make a bad throw.
Sometimes you take on one too many projects. Or Murphy’s Law derails your plans.
Don’t lunge to save things. Let them drop.
Reset, and begin anew.
I spent years of my life being criticized (often brutally) by teachers and peers during my time as a musician.
It hurt—a lot. For a while, anyway.
Eventually you realize something:
It’s not about you. It’s about the work.
Even when the comments seem personal or exceedingly harsh.
You realize there’s this other thing you’re trying to bring into the world (in my case, a piece of music). And there are ways to do it that are creative and wonderful… And ways to do it that are just plain wrong.
At some point, the musician realizes that the people they’re making art with all have the same goal: to bring to life a beautiful piece of music in the way it needs to be.
And when you’re all working toward that shared goal, it makes the feedback easier to bear. You learn to separate the self from the art.
It’s not about you—it’s about the work.
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Acting “as if” is the only way to change.
Reading, studying, thinking—none of that will create change without action.
People are afraid to take the actions necessary because they don’t feel like they’re “THAT” type of person yet.
But you don’t become “that guy” until you start acting like that guy.
So act as if.
…As if you ARE patient, kind, and understanding.
…As if you ARE lean, strong, and healthy.
…As if you ARE a confident entrepreneur.
…As if you ARE a loving spouse or parent.
Acting as if, a little bit each day, will eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There is only feedback.
People who develop a growth mindset view every failure as a learning opportunity, not an end result.
Either you succeed or you learn. But you never fail.
Of course, something might not work out like you planned. But as long as you learn from the incident and improve, did you really fail?
One of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes of all time…
“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing… poorly!”
You will never be great when you’re learning something new. Take the time to suck at it on your way to getting better.
The best teacher in the world is failure. Nothing teaches us more or faster than trying and failing at something.
It’s how we learn to walk. It’s how we learn to speak.
What keeps failure from becoming success is a lack of perseverance. We fail once and assume we’ll fail if we try again.
Thomas Edison failed more than 10,000 times in creating the incandescent lightbulb. But he failed differently each time.
When asked about this by a reporter, Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” He implied that each failure got him closer to his eventual success.
Had he tried making his lightbulb the same way 10,000 times, he would have been living out Einstein’s definition of insanity. But he didn’t. Instead he chose to keep trying 10,000 different ways.
Failure is a reality, but it’s also a choice. We can choose to learn from it, change things up, and try again. That option will eventually lead to success.
Or we can choose to fail and accept it as a permanent part of our lives.
You’ll find life is much better when you look at failure and success as learning experiences.
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