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Advice and insight about personal growth, personal development, and becoming your best self.
Sage Solutions
Failing Forward: Turning Setbacks into Success
Fear of failure holds most of us back from reaching our potential, but what if we've been looking at failure all wrong? In this transformative exploration of "failing forward," we challenge the deeply ingrained belief that failure represents the end of the road rather than a necessary part of the journey toward success.
We dive into the fascinating reasons behind our aversion to failure, examining both our evolutionary hardwiring and the unintentional conditioning from educational systems that teach us to avoid failure at all costs. Through cognitive biases like pain avoidance, binary thinking, and loss aversion, we develop patterns that limit our willingness to take risks - even when the potential benefits far outweigh the potential losses.
The path forward requires embracing a growth mindset, where abilities are viewed as developable rather than fixed. By extracting valuable lessons from each setback and building resilience through continued action, failure becomes not just acceptable but essential to meaningful progress. We explore inspiring examples from innovators like Thomas Edison, who famously found "10,000 ways that don't work" before succeeding, and entrepreneurs like Sarah Blakely, who transformed countless rejections into stepping stones toward building her empire. Perhaps most powerfully, we examine how we all once mastered the art of failing forward as babies learning to walk - failing hundreds of times daily without becoming discouraged.
Ready to transform your relationship with failure? Try our actionable strategies: take imperfect action rather than remaining paralyzed by analysis, reflect regularly on lessons learned, set smaller achievable goals, build a supportive network, and practice self-compassion through the process. Your failures aren't the opposite of success - they're the building blocks that make success possible. Subscribe now and start your journey toward embracing failure as a catalyst for personal growth and achievement.
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The Sage Solutions Podcast and content posted by David Sage is presented solely for general informational, educational, and entertainment purposes. No coaching client relationship is formed by listening to this podcast. No Legal, Medical or Financial advice is being given. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user's own risk. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice, diagnosis, or treatment of a psychotherapist, physician, professional coach, Lawyer or other qualified professional. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions. The opinions of guests are their own and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of the podcast.
Welcome to the Sage Solutions Podcast, where we talk about all things personal growth, personal development and becoming your best self. My name is David Sage and I am a self-worth and confidence coach with Sage Coaching Solutions. Today, we're going deep into a topic that often gives us pause failure. More importantly, we'll discuss how facing failure head-on and embracing it can be a catalyst for success. In this episode, we explore the concept of failing forward, the idea that each misstep isn't a setback but an essential step towards growth. So let's take that leap of faith together. But before we get into it, our goal with this podcast is to share free, helpful tools with you and anyone you know who is looking to improve their life. So take action, subscribe and share this podcast with them.
Speaker 1:Most of us have a conditioned response to the word failure. In our society, failure is often seen as the end of the road, worst outcome, a verdict of inadequacy. But what if I told you that failure is often a good thing, that failure can be a powerful teacher? Over the next few minutes, we will reframe failure from being the worst of the worst to a necessary part of the journey towards innovation, wisdom and personal growth. The concept of failing forward involves viewing failure not as a permanent flaw, but as a series of experiments on the road to success. Every time you fail, you learn something new, like a method that doesn't work, or a new angle to try, or even a better understanding of what you truly value. This is why I say action equals success and all outcomes are just learning. Think about the greatest inventors, entrepreneurs and leaders. They didn't arrive at their success by avoiding failure. They succeeded by leaning into failure, by taking risks and by learning from every misstep. Now, if this whole concept just seems uncomfortable, there's a reason for that.
Speaker 1:We are both hardwired and conditioned to avoid failure. Evolutionary psychology shows one of the reasons we fear failure so much is because failure could have meant life and death in the past. Failure to get away from something that was trying to chase and kill you, or failure to succeed in finding food could mean that you get eaten or starve to death, but that wasn't strong enough to stop us from trying. There's also a series of cognitive biases that we have built into our brains that help lead us towards avoiding failure. Number one we avoid pain and seek pleasure, and if you've ever had an especially painful failure, that's going to condition your brain to avoid failure in the future, which is why many of us choose to not try, in order to avoid the pain of failing. We also have the binary bias, which leads us to see things as either fully a success or fully failure, and if you're not succeeding then you must be a failure. This also plays into the halo effect, which means that once we have failed, it's easy to see ourselves in our entirety as a failure, at least in that moment and project that one experience onto a trait, onto our entire being. There's also loss aversion. We don't want to do something if it risks us losing something we already have. This causes us to take less risks, even if the benefits outweigh the risks, even if the benefits outweigh the risks. But the stronger reason why we're so inclined to avoid failure is actually because we've been conditioned that way for years.
Speaker 1:And I want to be clear. I'm not trying to demonize the education system here. I actually think that this is wholly unintentional and really just a casualty of the current system. But when you take a test, when you take a class, you either pass that class or you fail that class. Failure is the worst thing you can do. Success is the only acceptable option. Now we want kids to succeed. Heck, you want to succeed.
Speaker 1:Generally speaking, it's better to succeed at something than to fail. I'm not going to pretend that that's not true, but by having everything be pass-fail, success or failure, and demonizing failure, we've been repeatedly conditioning ourselves over and over and over, on every homework assignment, on every quiz, on every test, to avoid failure at all costs. This conditions us to only do things if we're going to succeed and to avoid failure at all costs, for there's no benefit to failing anything in school. But once you get into the real world where you're not forced to try, then you avoid failure by not doing it. So what we're looking to do here today is reprogram our brains to view failure as a stepping stone to fail forward and see that failure is not necessarily a bad thing and that by embracing failure you will take more action.
Speaker 1:I first heard the term failing forward from renowned leadership expert John C Maxwell and read about it in his book titled Failing Forward. So let's break down this mindset. Behind failing forward First, we embrace a growth mindset. Renowned psychologist Dr Carol Dweck's work on the growth mindset clearly shows that individuals who see their abilities as improvable are more likely to succeed. When you experience setbacks, shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset can transform those failures into inevitable lessons. As Anna said on a previous episode, embrace the power of yet I am not good at this. Yet Instead of thinking I am not good enough, you can begin to ask what can I learn from this? These shifts may not happen overnight. It's a practice, a commitment to self-compassion and continuous improvement, but over time it will have a compound effect on your life life.
Speaker 1:Second, learn to extract the lesson. Every failure carries a lesson. When things don't work out as expected, pause and analyze. Ask yourself what assumptions led me astray. Were there warning signs I overlooked? How can I adjust my approach moving forward? This practice is not about self-blaming, but about constructive reflection. A mistake is simply data, information about the reality of your approach, information that we can use to do better next time. Third, develop resilience. Resilience is built through adversity. The more you confront challenges, the stronger you become emotionally and mentally. Each instance of failure is a rehearsal for future success, even when the outcome isn't what you hoped for. Every experience is a training ground for perseverance.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about some real-life examples, like Thomas Edison when asked about his many failures while he was inventing the light bulb. Edison famously said I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work. This quote perfectly captures the spirit of failing forward. Every experiment that doesn't produce the desired outcome is simply progress, and if nothing else contributes to the process of elimination. Edison's relentless determination didn't just lead to a successful invention it revolutionized modern society. Another inspiring story is that of the renowned entrepreneur Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx. Early on, she encountered countless rejections and missteps, but by reframing her failures as learning opportunities, she ultimately turned them into stepping stones that built her multi-million dollar enterprise. Her story reinforces the idea that perceived failures can become platforms for future breakthroughs if we allow ourselves to learn and adapt. But let's talk about an even more relatable example, one that, with very few exceptions, everyone listening to this will have done themselves.
Speaker 1:You and I were both masters of embracing failure at one point in our lives. In fact, every human with the physical capabilities to do so has went through this experience. Or we failed thousands of times, hundreds of times a day, until we finally succeeded once. That's right. All of us were babies, and as a baby we had to learn how to stand. And as a baby we had to learn how to stand and then, eventually, how to walk and take our first steps. And let me tell you, you failed continuously, over and over and, over and over and over. But you were completely unfazed, and so was I. We were masters of taking action and embracing failure and understanding that it was a part of the process. How many babies do you know that tried once or twice and just said, eh guess, walking isn't for me. We just have to harvest and embrace this mindset that we had as children of who cares how many times I try? I want to do the thing and apply it to our lives now as adults.
Speaker 1:Action equals success and outcomes are just learning. Now that we understand the theoretical framework and some of these inspirational examples, let's talk about actionable strategies. How can you and I, as individuals striving for growth, learn to embrace failure? First, take action. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,. Go, stop thinking and start doing. No more paralysis by overanalysis. Action cures everything. Commit yourself to taking imperfect action and then, when failure does happen, reflect regularly.
Speaker 1:Dedicate time at the end of each week to reflect both on your successes and your failures. To reflect both on your successes and your failures, because outcomes are just learning. Ask what can I learn from this week's challenges? Set smaller, achievable goals. Sometimes failures loom because we set these huge, insurmountable targets. Break your goals into smaller, simple, manageable steps and celebrate the small victories along the way. Surround yourself with support. Build a network of friends, family, mentors or colleagues who not only celebrate your achievements but also help you see the value in your failures and practice self-compassion. Treat yourself with the kindness you would offer a friend. Acknowledge that mistakes are a natural part of growth and that each setback is temporary, a lesson rather than a life sentence. Implementing these practices can help create an environment where failure is not feared, but seen as a necessary part of the creative and success processes.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for joining me on today's journey through the landscape of failure and success. Every failure is not a roadblock but a stepping stone on your path to personal development. Embrace your failures, learn from them and, most importantly, keep moving forward. Commit to imperfect action, because avoiding failure is avoiding success, and remember you are enough and you deserve to fill up your inner cup with happiness, confidence and self-compassion. Thank you for listening to the Sage Solutions Podcast. Your time is valuable and I'm so glad that you choose to learn and grow here with me. If you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on more sage advice. One last thing the legal language. This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. No coaching client relationship is formed. It is not intended as a substitute for the personalized advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional.