The Stages of Failure and How to Overcome Them
There’s a lot of problems in life. One is not knowing when to give up and move on to something else.
Perseverance is my favorite word and there’s a level of grit required to accomplish anything worth doing, but you’ll deal with a ton of doubt.
That constant inner resolution isn’t fun.
In dealing with a successful relationship, a goal, or learning a new skill, then just going through it all may well very well be worth it.
But of course that ‘Don’t give up’ talk isn’t always the best solution. A lot of successful people have given up. If it’s not working, then it’s totally understandable to just give up.
Instead they they go back to the drawing board and try again. They’re not insane because insanity is just doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
In life, there needs to be a healthy about of both. There are times you need to go all in with full force. Other times just try doing something else that may be different. So when do you know when to give up and move on?
By understanding the different stages of failure.
The first stage is Failed Strategy. The ‘how’ in the mistakes. This is what happens you built a faulty system that doesn’t work as should. Essentially comes from laziness or failure to detail. It’s all about executing a good plan with clear goal.
This second stage is Failed Initiation. The ‘what’ mistakes. This happens when you have a strategy, but failed to give the outcome you wanted. It’s the you know what to do to make it work, but chose not to.
The third stage is Failed Insight. The ‘why’ mistakes. Its what happens when you don’t set a clear vision. It’s essentially failing at understanding what reason you do things.
Now how does this all look like in a real world situation? Here’s a story that showcases that.
Emily Johnson was a small business owner in 1987. She loved to work with cosmetics and hair styling. Needless to say she was good at it.
Emily believing her salon would be the best in town with the highest level of service and affordability.
But that wasn’t the case. Emily was working at least 80 hours a week just make ends meet. A single mother of 2 and dealing with depression.
Just one missed payroll and her salon would have collapsed. The stress level was an all time high.
A week before Emily was going to miss her payroll — she had an epiphany.
She lacked the system and vision she needed to keep it all afloat. The problem was everyone was doing their own thing about how they thought it should be.
Emily believed that if she had her team all in unison about how they would go about their operation. The time spent doing one thing would go down tremendously.
If she perfected her systems her stress levels and free time. She immediately began writing down all the processes of her business.
For an example she had a 4 step procedure for answering the phone, taking reservations, and cleaning the bathroom. Thought about how to make the process simpler and easier.
What happened?
Emily’s schedule went from 80 hours to less than 20. She no longer had to handle every procedure and quality of attention went up. Even her revenue went up by 35%.
To this day, she opened up another salon and still expanding with more time than she need she could have.
So what procedures are having problems with?
Sometimes the right strategies are the simplest. It’s when all the additional things cloud our vision and makes things more difficult than it should.
Sure, these are not world changing solutions, but they help deal with the most important ones making dreams into a reality and having more time to do so.
So you may not be on the wrong path, just not a clear one.
So what strategies are you facing?
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