We hear it all the time: “You must be willing to fail in order to win.” Sadly, most are not. They fear what others may think… which brings me to an incredibly important message this week inside The Drawn By Success Marketing Insider.
I came across some very powerful information from a mentor of mine that I’m happy to share with you this week.
Short and sweet but very, very powerful.
Let’s dive in shall we…
I’m not going to talk to you today about new years resolutions and 2010 goals.
I’d like to instead, focus on the one thing most are missing, which in turn, will effect their progress moving forward.
I’d like you to take a look at the last 12 months. Take stock of your successes, and more importantly the areas where you feel you failed or missed the mark.
You see, most people are blinded by their goals. By their own internal measures, they judge themselves a success or failure. But HEAR this, failure cannot happen to you…
…YOU do it to yourself. When you miss the mark, you can choose to call what you got feedback. You fail only when you give up believing in yourself. There is no other failure in the world.
A breakthrough strategy was developed at the Palo Alto Brief Therapy Clinic by Dr. Paul Watzlawick for life-long learning that makes subsequent goal achievement surprisingly simple.
Pay close attention…
Although your actions may not always accomplish your goals, they always produce an “outcome”. If you know how to accept what your actions produce, you can use every outcome you produce to guide you toward your goal. “Whatever course of action you take,” says Dr. Watzlawick, “I am going to ask that you report any small concrete
indicator of success, any movement in the direction of your goal.” When you observe the effects of your actions, you open yourself to perceiving progress toward and away from your goals. Therefore, the
only feedback is — “I have not arrived yet.”
The point of this strategy is to recognize “movement.” We experience success in the direction of our goals without having to achieve the goal just yet. When we take the pressure off ourselves, we maintain our balance, enjoy the journey, and keep learning all the time.
Here is the ultimate lesson…
If you value and integrate the feedback from your actions, ALL outcomes you produce can lead to “learning” – NOT frustration like it does for those who do not know what you now do… This may be one of the most important lessons I’ve personally experienced in some time.
In the last few years I’ve gone from operating a successful freelance illustration business, to creating and launching one the countries most successful syndicated comic strips, and expanding my business to launching two other industry related businesses which includes DrawnBySuccess.com
To be candid, I’ve come up short on many fronts in completing everything I wanted to accomplish last year and beat myself up pretty good over it many times. So much I wanted to do. So much I want to share. I started to feel that frustration setting in… frustrated for exactly the reasons mentioned here — viewing my actions or lack of progress as failures instead of feedback along the way to my destination. As you can see, that’s awfully short
sighted and unnecessary…
Read this again. Print it out. Don’t take this shift in thinking lightly.
So here’s your homework for this week…
Break out a sheet of paper or two and list the following. Set aside a good 30 minutes in a place void of distractions to complete this exercise.
* List of the successes and progress you made during the last 12 months, however small.
* List the impact those successes had or will have on your business or personal life.
* List challenges you experienced and what you learned from each.
* What modifications you will make to stay on track the next 12 months
Already created a similar list heading into this new year? No problem. Break it out again and revisit it, see if there’s anything new that comes to mind you might have missed.
Extra Credit
Share your list with me so that I can better understand what you’re struggling with, and where I can better support you.
NOTE: This site is all about taking action. Not just reading passively for entertainment. Reading and learning without action is worthless.
I can only imagine you signed up to this newsletter because you were looking for strategies to help you move your business forward, attract better clients and higher fees, get more focused and leapfrog your competition. Taking stock of all of your strengths and weaknesses is a fundamental step in achieving those goals.
So I challenge you here today to make a commitment to yourself to follow through. I’m here to keep you accountable. I want you to succeed. Do the exercise and send me your list.
Take inspired action! See you next week…with a step by step action plan to get your freelance business on track for success in 2010.
To your creative success,
Carlos Castellanos
DrawnBySuccess.com
