Having tried my hand at a great deal of traditional jobs, as well as a few MLM’s, I recently decided my place was elsewhere. When I was little, I didn’t know people could start their own businesses. When I was in high school, I met a few teachers that knew what it was like to step out of the box and try their hand at something creative, independent and more fulfilling than traditional employment. That exposure started wheels turning in my head, and those wheels haven’t stopped!
What did you want to be when you were a kid? I guess depending on your age and what generation you grew up in, the answers will vary. I wanted to be so many things! I just had an interest in so many topics, it was difficult to pick just one. I was taught that you should just pick one thing and stick to it. Not so in my life! My interests ranged from teacher, to doctor, to figure skater, to author. I loved learning. The go to the library and read through everything I could get my hands on kind of learning!
Another thing I loved was helping people. Getting others to that place where they realize they can do anything….that was the ultimate for me. Still is. I use laughter, candor, and anything else available to me at that moment, to snap people out of what they are currently “suffering” from, so a solution can be found.
When I was in the typical W2 working world, I did not stay in one place for very long. It was always one excuse or another why I no longer liked the company or respected the people I worked with. Having to always start over at the bottom, I felt like a failure.
Then Network marketing came along, *ahem* a few times, and after much crisis emotionally and mentally, I decided that I had failed at that too.
Even relationships were pretty short lived (except a couple).
In the midst of trying my hand at MLM’s, I was blessed with an opportunity to learn and become certified in NLP. It was there that I learned the presupposition: “There is no failure, only feedback”. WHOA! That one blew me away, since I was under the impression that I had failed at love, failed at employment, failed at SELF employment…..
What does this really mean,
and how can I apply it to my life right now?
Feedback is incredibly useful in making future choices. People get feedback from books, blogs, videos, even on a Facebook status (in the form of comments). Feedback comes in other forms as well, and not all are written or verbal. You may get a FEELING about a particular person or situation. That is definitely useful feedback! You now have new resources and information that you didn’t have up until this point…
When we are always learning from our experiences, failure cannot exist. It’s simply a process of figuring out how to allow something to work in our lives for the greatest good/outcome.
Personal story….I have 2 little girls. While I was planning on having them naturally – drug free, birthing tub, low lights, midwives, music, no c-section – my birthing experience did not go that way. Not only did I require an epidural for the incredible pain I was in, both of my girls had to be surgically removed by c-section. Both times, it felt as if they were being ripped out of my body, and I was just the packaging! I carried around pain, guilt, shame and disappointment for a very long time, thinking that somehow I had failed.
Failed as a mother for not being able to bring my girls into the world in the most careful and loving of ways. Failed as a wife for not being able to take care of our precious children, which was my responsibility. Failed as a woman, for not having a body that could handle giving birth the way it was meant to.
I did not fail. It took me so long to realize that it was not a failure on my part, that it was just not the end result I was hoping for. Many factors come into play when you are planning something out – sometimes they come out of no where. Doesn’t mean you failed to plan, or are somehow a failure as a person. It just shows you what works and what doesn’t. Just because I couldn’t give birth the way I wanted, doesn’t mean it changed the end result. Healthy little girls! And a mommy that lived to raise them.
Take the information you are given as Feedback, accept the gift, and move forward. Failure gives you an excuse to stop. Feedback gives you the resources to move onward and upward!
TO THE TOP!
