Embracing…failure?
The fat December issue of “O: The Oprah Magazine” features another smashing article by life coach and failure expert, Martha Beck. “Failure expert?” you wince. Yes, I said expert. In “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”, Beck tackles the largest, loudest elephant in the room that you’ll never hear anyone admiringly talk about: failure.
The article is still on newsstands but here are some highlights that I think you can’t miss:
1) Beck says that the primary difference between successful people and unsuccessful ones is that successful people fail more. Well, I’m not sure if I want to declare myself one of the more successful people that I know but I will gladly claim failing…a lot.
2) Failure often lives right next door to its less than cuddly friend, misery. 
Beck says that, “Dwelling on failure can make us miserable, but dwelling on success can turn us into galley slaves, bound to our wretched benches solely by the thought, ‘I hate this but at least I’m good at it.’ “Amen to that, I say. If I had a nickel for every time that thought came up with the women I work with…
3) Accept failure. It’s inevitable since (guess what) you aren’t perfect. The quicker you can accept that you are going to screw up, the better. Opt for being real aka being your Authentic Self instead. Own your failure with regret, Beck says, but no shame and you’ll receive respect, trust, forgiveness and connection instead. That’s quite a motherload of goodies for the Authentic Self.
On a similar note, in a recent blog post, Mikelann Valterra talks about feeding “The Goddess of Mistakes”. While I’m not sure I’m on board with owning mistakes as mythological food, the idea is interesting to consider and may help some of us move toward a true bear hug of failure.
What have you failed at recently?