Happy Monday,
I hope you all had an amazing weekend
Some of you may be wondering how I got on in the StrongFirst Certification. Well… I am gutted. I didn’t even make it to Australia!
Thursday afternoon I flew up to Auckland and checked into the Motel I was staying in. The plan was an early night as it was a 5am start the following day.
Right after dinner is when it hit me, dizziness, nausea and intense stomach cramps. I thought to myself if I can just get a good night sleep I will be fine in the morning.
Then came the guy in the room next door who decided it would be fun to let off fireworks all night. At 2:30am it stopped but the stomach cramps didn’t.
At 5am I dragged my sorry ass (excuse the pun) out of bed and got ready for the coming flight. I checked my bags in, loaded up on drugs but still it just seemed to go from bad to worse.
With 10 minutes till boarding I made the call to pull the plug. I was and still am gutted. 12 weeks of hard work and dedication to not even make the flight.
As I sat on the floor of Auckland Airport all I could think about are the what if’s
What If I got to Oz and it got worse?
What if I could have got through the flight and recovered enough to compete?
What if I had a complete meltdown on the flight?
Upset and anxious I spoke with a couple of friends on the phone, who were truly supportive and shared some perspective on the situation. Even though it was somewhat out of my control I still felt like a failure.
So in today’s post I thought I would share some advice on failing. Honestly I am writing this (as with many of my newsletters) to myself. These newsletters serve as a chance for me to reflect and put things into perspective.
Without further ado…
1 – Don’t attach yourself to the outcome
We have to separate failure from our identity. There is a huge difference between I am a failure and I have failed at the thing I was doing. If we view our failures as personal they can wreak havoc on our self esteem
2 – Learn and adapt
Take a step back and look at failure with an analytical mind. Withdraw feelings of anger, frustration or sadness and just look at it from – what are the things I need to do in order to get a better outcome.
You might be thinking it was out of my control and there was nothing I could have done. Here’s the thing – this isn’t the first flight I have missed because of stomach problems. Yes I had a gastro bug but it was most probably exacerbated by the stress and anxiety which I had attached to it
3 – Stop dwelling on it
Going over and over the failure in your mind doesn’t change anything. The only thing dwelling on the failure does is keeps you stuck to the negativity which chips and chips away at your self worth
4 – Let go of the judgement from others
The fear of failure is often rooted in the judgement from others or the story we tell ourselves about ‘not being good enough’
We easily worry far too much about what other people will think of us. The truth is most people are too worried about what you think of them that they don’t really care.
Stop swimming in GOOP that’s the good opinion of other people.
5 – Flip your perspective
We often see failure as weakness but the truth is it’s not. Without sounding too cliche it’s the trying that counts. Standing on the sideline is the real failure and will leave you with a life of regret.
If you have failed then that’s worth celebrating. You have swung the bat of life and in my book that’s a win in itself
That’s it for today
Paul “failure” & Krystie “can I go to OZ instead?” Miller
P.s here is a video of me complete the 100 rep snatch test in training (not a justification just for those interested in my strategy)
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