5 Minute Friday - Issue #8 - YOU'RE (not) A FAILURE
Welcome to the 8th issue of 5 Minute Friday from The Backpack CPA! Every Friday I share a short email with tips & resources to get you thinking about your
Professional & Personal Development!
Let's start "growing" through our professional journey instead of just "going" through it!
A few words from someone wiser than me...
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." ~ Robert F. Kennedy
💪 Professional & Personal Development
YOU'RE (not) A FAILURE
There are a few things in life that we really fear, and FAILURE is one of them. Often times we are scared to take risks or do things because we are worried that'll we will fail at it, not achieve success and then we'll be ridiculed. STOP RIGHT THERE! Don't let this destructive thinking let you from doing great things!
We should learn to embrace failure and learn from it! Most successful people fail a hundred times before they see any success.
I found an article in the Greater Good Magazine that talks about ways to overcome the feelings of failure & how to THINK BEYOND failure.
Here's a summary of the techniques you can use to overcome failure & learn from it:
Observe other people’s failures & study what they did and then how they achieved success.
Share your own failure stories with others. You'll be surprised to find many others just like you. This can help you build confidence & inspire you! Remember, we're all humans!
Focus on the long-term goal. Life is one long journey and along the way, you'll have many failures and hurdles. You have to keep moving along and not worry about past failures, instead embrace them, learn from them and keep growing. Remember our life events are like lego blocks, we keep adding one small block at a time to create one big creation! (okay maybe that example was a little bit of a stretch, but you get the idea!).
Practice mindfulness & reflect on lessons you've learned. This is a concept that can be confusing for many but put simply just be more aware and present. Be focused on the present moment and situation and have a nonjudgmental awareness (just have an open mind).
Take it easy & be kind to yourself. Sometimes we're too hard on our own selves when we don't do something right. You have to change this behavior and start taking it easy and be kind to yourself. If you know you've given your best and still failed, then don't go beat up yourself. Sometimes it's necessary to just take a step back and just go with the flow.
In summary, if you fail at something, don't be hard on yourself, and instead take a step back, reflect, share, understand, learn, and TRY AGAIN!
📗💡 Learning/Tools
JOURNALING!
We all LOVE❤️ writing, right? Well if you don't, then you better make it a habit! I was thinking of tools/apps that could help us with learning from our failures, and I thought what better way than journaling?!
Journaling simply put is just like a major brain 🧠 dump in which you pour out all your days' thoughts/experiences for yourself. You are writing for you, not for any audience or client! I mean you could if you wanted to, but it's MAINLY FOR YOU.
How to journal? Just get a notebook & pen/pencil (or even a digital device), and start writing down each day's events, what went well, what didn't go well, people you met, things you ate, etc.
How is this going to help you with learning from your failures? When you need to share your failures with someone or need to reflect on what happened, you'll have it all right there in writing!
There are many types of journaling people do, like gratitude journals, visual journals, reflective journaling, travel journaling, etc.
Remember grammar, spelling, & punctuation isn't important, it's the memories, thoughts, and words you write down which are the most important!
If you currently journal and want to share with others some best practices, send me a message and I can send it out!
If you want to chat about anyting feel free to send me a message or even book a time to chat https://calendly.com/vbcpa/thebackpackcpa!
Stay inspired & keep growing 🚀,
Vimal (or Vic)
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