Fail into Success

Last month was about defining success. This month is about failing into success. No, that wasn’t a typo. I really mean failing. Success, reaching new heights and achieving new goals, is absolutely the byproduct of failing. Unfortunately, as you start to get good at what you do, you have a tendency to forget that.

Reminder: you used to be terrible at your sport. There was a point in time when you fell down when you tried to walk, you tripped over your feet, you threw the ball backwards, you fell off the side of the mat when doing a somersault (or was that last one only me…). The point is, you started by failing. And failing A LOT!

Then you started to get better. (Remember, it was because of all those failures). At some point, the stuff that used to be so challenging became so easy that you forget it was ever hard in the first place! Now, you are used to doing things well most of the time. But, if you are really wanting to reach what you are capable of, of reaching the next level, of achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself, then you are going to have to start failing again.

Failures teach your brain that what you did actually did NOT get you the result you were setting out to achieve. So it doubles back to figure out what was the thing that didn’t work. This does take time AND most of the actions you are doing now are fairly complicated so there may be a few things that aren’t quite right. The more you test things out and fail, the more your brain is going to figure out what to do. You are also going to figure out where your limits are and what things you need to do to move forward (i.e, gain strength, increase skill, improve strategy, etc.).

The best way to incorporate this is to pick a short 10-15 period during each training session where you really push your limits. Success during this time IS failing. I repeat, success is failing! Find those limits. Fail as often as you can. See what you can learn from those failures. Maybe you need to address something physically, technically, or mentally. Not only will you improve athletically, but you are also building your tolerance for the inevitable failures that happen in sports.

As Michael Jordan said,

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed.”

Want to work with Dr. Lindsey? Need help failing into success? Connect with us today!