FAILURE IS ALWAYS AN OPTION

This goes against what most people think of when they think of success. The majority of people think along the lines of “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION”

This is a saying that comes up again and again, and I know people are trying to be helpful and “motivating” but this is one of the sayings that really gets under my skin. Failure is ALWAYS an option, more often than that, failure is quite often the easiest option. How easy is it to just pick up your bat and ball and go home.

Having conversations with various clients I also must be clear what is meant by the term “FAILURE”. If you talk to one person it can mean stumbling and falling, or missing their KPI’s or quotas, to them that is failure. Ask someone else and they may come up with the idea that failing is simply quitting before the game is up. It is such a grey area and as such is down to each individuals own interpretation.

If you take the former idea, that failing is stumbling and falling, I think that failure is, in most instances, a must. That is when we are trying new ideas and concepts and finding out from our own experiences what works and what doesn’t. So long as you are smart enough to learn from these stumbling blocks and come at it with a different strategy and if necessary get some fresh eyes to look over the issue and see if together you brainstorm can combat the problem.

This is in sporting terms like standing up at bat in baseball and being to scared to take a swing. If you don’t take a swing you can still get struck out, but you have no chance at hitting the ball, let along hit a home run.

Babe Ruth (American Baseballer) is a legend for his ability to hit home runs. In his 22 Seasons in the Major League he hit the most amount of home runs in the American League for 12 of those seasons. Having said that he also lead the league in strikeouts 5 times and for many years was known as the King of Strikeouts. But ask just about anyone these days and Babe Ruth is known for his all or nothing approach and his homeruns.

If however you take the latter, that failure is quitting, then there are arguments for that as well. I completely understand if you have put in countless hours of work, and lots of money into a project and nothing is coming from it, that you will want to get something in return. If you ask the question, “Is it all worth it”, well, maybe it just isn’t? You must take a good look at your situation and your mindset and make sure it is something you would do even if you wouldn’t get the rewards.

If i was to do something like programming or computers, it wouldn’t matter how much money or how much time I put in I just wouldn’t have the passion or drive to keep at it when times get tough. You can bet your bottom dollar that business and any endeavour will have it’s tough times and if it isn’t something that you are passionate about you will more than likely give up and quit (FAIL), which in all honesty could be the best thing for you to do strategically.

If however you are doing that you are passionate about, with me it is Speaking, Coaching and Fitness, you will find a way to push through even when the chips are down. That is precisely where you want to be.

Quitting or “FAILING” as it were, can be the best strategic tool when applied properly. If you quit on something that is failing and beyond repair, or something that is of no interest to you, you will free up a lot of time and resources towards what your true passion is.

For those out there that spread the gospel “Failure is not an option”
I ask them to take a close look at the question and truly be honest with themselves. Is failure really not an option, or is it actually the best option?

STRESS. Is it really a bad thing?

If you take any notice of people at all in society, you will notice a lot of people will say, more so complain, that they are STRESSED OUT. So the question is, is stress really that bad for you?

The answer may confuse some a little, but hear me out and read on and hopefully it will become clearer. The answer to is stress bad is both YES and NO.

The explanations I use will mostly come from a sporting/ training perspective, but studies repeatedly show a direct correlation with physical, mental and emotional stress, and that these principles can go from the sporting world into the business world.

When you start training you have a baseline level of strength, endurance, mobility and technique (mostly these start off quite low). With weight training you will stress the muscles, connective tissues, joints and bones through manipulating the weights, reps, tempo etc. If you don't stress it enough there will be nil to minimal results, yet if you over stress (by using too much weight) the muscles you are using can risk injury, and at the very least you will be very, very sore for quite a few days.

By using the right weight and rep range for your current level and the goals you want to reach, you will stress your body and you may be a little sore the next day or two, but you will create adaptions in your body becoming stronger, being able to lift heavier weights for more reps down the track. This is called progressive overload.

By putting your body, emotions and your mind under the right amount of stress you will create an adaptive response. This in itself isn't enough though. If it were people would be going "Balls to the wall" so to speak, all the time and be getting bigger and better. When you see people taking this approach, be it athletes or your employees, they will eventually hit the wall and burn out. What is needed here is recovery/rest. If you don't get enough recovery your results will eventually start to drop. This tends to create an even bigger issue in itself. When peoples results start sliding they feel they have to train harder, work longer, to get the same results, but the results keep dropping. They are trying harder and longer but their results keep dropping, leading to more, and harder work, eventually leading to burnout.

On the other hand you can be put in a no stress/ low stress environment and end up with no growth at all. Or you can be put in a stressful environment, lets use the weights analogy again, hit the "Sweet spot" of stress, by using the correct weight and reps, have the body adapt, rest too long, then lose any possible gains, only to end up at the same place you started.

The ideal way is to be put under some stress, then enable your body and mind some time to rest and recover, then stress it out again. This can be something as simple as leaving the office and going for a walk in the fresh air, or meet up with some friends to completely escape and disconnect with work and its possible issues.

The main part here is to leave work at work. I know with technology these days it is becoming harder to be done, but it is possible, and I will be discussing this in the next BLOG.

David Lindsay

Integrated Health and Vitality