Yesterday, the theme for this week's tiny inspiring signs was about failure. Today, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to offer tips on ways to pick yourself up during those times when you feel like a failure. Your Inner Resistance Monster just thrives on those "failure" periods as a way to keep you in the smallness of your comfort zone. We want you to achieve your goals and dreams, so here's some tiny tips to help you on your way.
- You may feel like there is a huge letter L tattooed on your head for "Loser" but I can assure you that it's only imaginary .The only person who can see that Loser L is you because you put it there via your own harsh judgment of yourself or because someone called you a Loser and you agreed with them. As easily as you put that Loser L on your head, you can easily throw it away. You control how you feel about yourself, no one else does.
- The failure feeling is blown up because you are focused on only a small part of the picture where yes relative to size, your mistake or inability to achieve something seems huge. Step back and now take a 10,000ft view of your journey and you will see that this mistake is really only a blip in the big picture. In fact, that blip which you label "failure" could actually be the major stepping stone to moving you out of the wrong direction and into the right one.
- For every successful person we see on those "Most Successful" lists, that same person could equally be put on "Big Mistakes ever Made" lists. People who achieve greatness also experience great loss and great mistakes because they are taking risks that most of us would never do. You have to risk great to achieve great which also means a path that is not easy. What made these people great successes is that they learned from their errors and did not let the mistakes or feelings of failure stop them from achieving their dreams.
- It's okay to be imperfect. Those suffering from "Perfect girl" syndrome who are afraid to make mistakes or risk feeling failure need to let go of that perfect image and lighten up because that drive to be perfect is in reality limiting to your growth, way more work than one needs to do, and lastly, no one really buys it. Trust me on this because I spent nearly 20 years trying to be "perfect." Perfect girls are boring and always tired. Women with flaws are interesting because flaws help to develop character and wisdom.
- On the bright side, if you're on the bottom, the only way you can go is up. This notion always works in getting me to find humor in the awful situation because I always try to find an upside. It does pick me up whenever I feel I have hit a bottom point because laughter can help bring relief to almost any dark moment.
What I did last week:
- Seeing the story about JK Rowling and her Harvard speech was timely and I believe my guardian angels sent it to me because I was in a serious funky panic last week about money. I saw the story as a reminder to pull myself out of my duldrums. I had to take my car to the shop because I had to get it serviced and the gear shift was sticking too much. Turns out there was way more my car needed fixing and the bill came to a month's rent which on my tuna and mac & cheese entrepreneur budget sparked some distraught feelings of failure and worry because like I mentioned above I was so immersed in only seeing the small picture. When I look at the grand scheme of things, I know and believe that these "limited budget" times are temporary. Financial prosperity is on its way. I'm also reminded of how rich I am already in so many other ways beyond cash.
