Why Failure is Important!

Fail Fast!

“The person who fails the most wins!”
Seth Godin

What do you think about when it comes to failure? I remember motivational quotes growing up, “failure is not an option!” “failure is for the weak!” 

You are told in sports, business circles, and in life that your experience is important. As a young athlete, you are told, you need more experience; as a veteran, you sign a new contract because you have experience. You get the idea. Your experience matters!

But how did you gain your experience? What were the moments that made your experience so valuable to others and to yourself?

Did you know that your failures and experience go hand-in-hand! 
 

Think about it, athletes receive praise for their athletic success, but one of the key factors to that success was a lot of failure leading up to that moment. Practice, film, training, extra workouts, more film, more practice, games, mistakes in games, learning, growing, improving, better. And you tally all of this up, and much more, and you get your experience!

Your failures create opportunities to learn, grow, test new ideas/thoughts/strategies/formations, risk, increase, be stretched, and fulfill your calling. Sport is one mountain that you can climb, realistically stumbling along the way, as you reach the top. But your experience of climbing the mountain tops allows you to bring valuable assets to the table for the next mountain!

Here are 5 questions to give clarity to the power of your experience now and in the future.

1 – What does your experience reveal to you?
2 – How has your “track record” shaped who you are today?
3 – What will your future self be as a result of what you have experienced and what you are experiencing today? 
4 – How do you view yourself when you fail?
5 – What is one thing you can learn from every failure moving forward? 

Failure is not a bad thing, failure is the medium through which you will be refined as a human and an athlete. Take risks, leverage opportunities, and push the limits.

The beauty of failure is that our stories are wrapped up within failure. Failure hurts, it stings, yet it is part of a refining fire that we go through to cultivate and grow our experience and as humans.

At SHIFT we desire to give athletes the opportunity to share their story, their successes, failures, missteps, and lessons learned. Over the next 4 weeks, Mitch Parsons, a former Division 1 football player will be inviting you into his story. You will laugh, resonate with his story, feel his emotion and pain, and the obstacles he has overcome.

So, enjoy the next 4 weeks hearing from Mitch!

And don’t forget, fail, fail fast, and keep moving forward — Make the most of your experience today!

Jonathan