Day 223: The Only Failure Is Not Moving
As I glanced through my emails early this morning, one line popped out at me.
It was the first line in a stock market email.
"The only failure that exists is inaction."
He covered several basics of personal growth in a short email. But then I started to think about it in a deeper way.
Failure doesn't come from being judged or rejected.
How do I know this for sure?
Because we all get judged and rejected. Some to the point of bullying and harassment, but everyone is subject to judgment and rejection.
The real culprit is very simple. Not taking action on what creates a fulfilling life.
And why does this happen?
There are two things that come up that make us freeze or slow things down in an unproductive way.
One is being a people pleaser and worrying about what others think more than going after what you want.
I may be experiencing this right now.
The other is not knowing what you want.
If you've been here with me for a while now, you should be pretty good at feeling your way to what thoughts and activities make you feel good.
More of that is what you want right now and you can expand on that by asking yourself better questions to go deeper.
People that succeed in creating a life they love do it by knowing what they want and why.
Those two things are strong enough to propel you forward against all the fear of failure, fear of the unknown, and fear of rejection from people who will feel left behind because they don't have your courage and clarity.
When you know what you want and why, fear can still keep you from moving quickly, but it won't defeat you.
It just makes you move cautiously rather than boldly toward your desires.
I've made so many big moves in my life that have left friends and family scratching their heads, that I don't even think about it anymore.
And I have to say, because of my strong conviction about what I wanted and why, I have always been happy with the outcome.
I have no fear of judgment or rejection from that group of people because I know they love and accept me.
I do worry about making big moves in my other business that could result in being judged and rejected, and the fear of that has, at times, stopped me in my tracks.
It's caused me to move much more slowly than I would like, inching my way forward, rather than my normal jumping in with both feet.
Why?
I feel an obligation to stay true to the framework I created for that group of people more than a decade ago.
Writing that makes it sound silly and unrealistic.
Because there's a difference between keeping your word and keeping yourself trapped inside an old version of what you once promised.
Who sets something up based on what they knew when they were just starting out doing something completely outside their area of expertise, and then lets that old framework dictate how they run that business a decade later, even when it is no longer in their best interest?
That sounds a little crazy.
And yet, the emotions can be hard to override.
I'm someone who keeps their word. But at what cost?
When I make the announcement of the change, I could find out that I put myself through all this worry and indecision for nothing. Or it could be the end of that business.
I have to be prepared for the possibility of letting go of it as a necessary part of moving forward.
Those decisions are some of the hardest decisions we make.
The ones where we could be left with a feeling of letting someone down.
It's a weighty decision to make when we're deciding between being true to ourselves or worrying about someone else thinking less of us.
But really, that's on them, not us.
To be true to ourselves and our soul's desires, we have to make those hard calls.
It's not failure when we were moving toward what we really want and understand our why.
It's letting go of the parts that no longer fit.
We all have different seasons and sometimes moving forward requires us to leave some things that have served us well behind.
That doesn't make the old thing wrong. It means the season has changed.
And when the season changes, self-leadership asks us to tell the truth, even when someone else may not understand it.
What do I want?
Why does it matter?
What am I no longer willing to keep carrying just because someone else might prefer that I do?
Those are not always easy questions. But they are honest ones.
And honest questions are how we keep moving toward the life that is actually ours.
Today's Gentle Practice
Think about one place where you may be delaying action because you're afraid of being judged, rejected, or misunderstood.
Ask yourself:
What do I want, and why does it matter to me?
Let your answer be honest, even if it feels inconvenient.
You don't have to make the whole decision today.
Just notice whether fear is asking you to stay loyal to something that no longer fits.
With you,
Lynn
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