{"id":1034,"date":"2015-05-20T03:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2015-05-17T17:51:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T23:51:32","slug":"celebrating-our-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2015\/05\/celebrating-our-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Our Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There is a danger about living our lives in a positive way. What\u2019s that, you ask?<\/p>\n

We may feel ashamed when things don\u2019t turn out the way we thought they would. We might feel that if our desires are sincere then the outcome should be assured. To avoid the pain we may even refuse to admit the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a wonderful opportunity<\/em> I\u2019m having,\u201d we may say when our experience goes south. Okay, I get it. I know bad events, even tragedies, can turn out months or years later to have a blessing of some kind. But stay with me.<\/p>\n

What I want to suggest is that we start being a little more willing to use the \u201cF\u201d word in our daily lives. Not that \u201cF\u201d word! This one:<\/p>\n

FAILURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut we don\u2019t fail! It\u2019s just a success that didn\u2019t work.\u201d Oh for God\u2019s sake! I couldn\u2019t ever quite put this into words the right way until I read Beth Kanter\u2019s article in the Harvard Business Review, \u201cGo Ahead, Take a Failure Bow.\u201d It finally showed me just how positive a failure can be!<\/p>\n

Kanter quotes the work of psychologist Sol Rosenthal who shows how a index finger wags at us or how we wag our index finger at someone else. Instead of using the failure as a way of bettering ourselves, we can easy blame others, be blamed or blame ourselves.<\/p>\n

Even more harmful is to ignore the situation altogether. It\u2019s that SEITL Syndrome \u2013 \u201cSmelly Elephant in the Livingroom\u201d Syndrome. Just keep ignoring it and it will go away or at least after a bit of time we\u2019ll get used to the smell.<\/p>\n

There are going to be times when what we do just doesn\u2019t work out the way we planned. Instead of trying to make a sow\u2019s ear into a silk purse, we can happily throw our arms up in the air and shout with pride, \u201cI FAILED! I FAILED!\u201d It\u2019s not about blame; it\u2019s about taking responsibility for the result. Then we laugh at the situation or foibles and decide what we can learn from the mess in front of us to move closer to what we really want.<\/p>\n

Kanter\u2019s approach works in a business environment or a personal one. It<\/em> gives us permission to make mistakes on our way to success!<\/em> <\/strong>How refreshing is that, instead of shaming ourselves or others?<\/p>\n

I invite you to rejoice and celebrate a failure of your own some kind this week. If you have a moment or two, give Kanter\u2019s article a look-see at:\u00a0 https:\/\/hbr.org\/2013\/04\/go-ahead-take-a-failure-bow<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"boa\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I promise you won\u2019t be disappointed. I especially liked the joyful funeral eulogy to the death of the failure and the staff that wears pink boas to celebrate their failures!<\/p>\n

In Spirit, Truth and Playfulness,<\/p>\n

Terry<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a danger about living our lives in a positive way. What\u2019s that, you ask? We may feel ashamed when things don\u2019t turn out the way we thought they would. We might feel that if our desires are sincere then the outcome should be assured. To avoid the pain we may even refuse to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1674,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[436,451,446,437,450,251,206,149],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aworldthatworksforeveryone","tag-blame","tag-drterrymakingsense","tag-theglobalvision","tag-bethkanter","tag-failure","tag-responsibility","tag-success"],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrating Our Failures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is a danger about living our lives in a positive way. What\u2019s that, you ask? 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