Failure
Hi, Thinking Out Loud here :D
Mindful Monday Week 16
Stay with me on this one; I promise it will be more positive than it sounds.
Here is the link for this week's playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5yrnmJz7cChrHPvvFukLZH?si=a63d288607134478
I hope you enjoy listening to it whilst you read, and I hope you find the music relaxing.
If an ad plays during listening to the playlist, please stop reading and wait for the playlist to play again. Hopefully, the playlist will be timed for you to read to the end of this blog post, with maybe one song running over after reading.
Get a drink, maybe even a snack, and find a comfy seat so you can relax. Let go of all worries and enjoy the next five deep breaths. If you have breathing problems, please take an extra mindful moment here. For those joining me in the breathing exercise, breathe out.
Now time for your first deep breath; take one deep breath in through your nose for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. breath out through your mouth for five 1..2..3..4..5.. Hold for 1.. Breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out through for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. Breathe in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. two more to go; breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. last one deep breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. And out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. now go back to your regular breathing pattern. I hope you now feel calm and relaxed.
We often see failure as a negative thing and something that we try to avoid, but we don’t have anything to learn from without failing at something first. Making mistakes and failing is all part of learning, becoming better, and knowing what not to do. Every person who is a professional in whatever industry they work in will have failed at an aspect of their work at some point and possibly multiple times (I realise some jobs you can’t fail, as that could lead to severe injury or even be life-threatening.)
Take actors, for example; they can go to countless auditions before they get that one that gives them a big break. However, that doesn't mean they should give up or that they are even bad at acting. For whatever reason, that particular director, producer, or casting team didn’t see them fit for a specific part. As hard as it is being rejected, the key is to keep practising and perfecting your skill for when you do get the role/job.
The same goes for writers, we have a couple of avenues that we can go down, traditional or indie, and neither one is easy. Traditional, I know, seems easy, but it's the same as acting; you go to several agents, querying a manuscript in hopes that they will love it as much as you do. But often, that's not the case.; sometimes, you get an email back, and most of the time, it’s an automated one; occasionally, you will get a personal email back, but from experience, that is rare. But do we give up? No, we keep going, we keep writing, we practise and practise. Some have blogs as I do; others keep trying the traditional publishing route until they get that one yes; after all, that is all it takes is one yes from an agent, but then they have to take it to publishers who could still say no, again until you get the one that says yes.
Then there is the rest of us who can see that maybe trad publishing isn’t for us, so we venture into indie publishing. This in itself takes time and a lot of work as you don’t have anyone behind you making deadlines or taking your book to editors and publishers; that all falls on to the writer.
It takes failures to get us to our end goals in acting and writing. There isn’t an easy way in either of them; I haven’t found it yet if there is. But in all honesty, I’d rather fail ten times and learn from what's not working than take the easy way and never know what it truly takes to perfect my craft.
Let's start looking at failures as a positive; they help us to become better, yes, it’s longer with failing at something, but in the long run, you will learn what not to do. Failing doesn’t make you a failure; it makes you a learner, determined, and someone who tries to better their skills and their craft.
Failure, I know, isn’t easy; with time, it will become easier, but trust in yourself and that those around you will still be cheering you on, and think about how proud you will be when you have learned what not to do. Seeing how far you’ve come will make you appreciate all those past attempts. Don’t give up when it starts to feel impossible because nine times out of ten, that's when you are about to make it. Keep on failing until you get whatever you are doing right. Smile with every lesson you learn, laugh with every mistake and celebrate every win that includes any failed attempts as they deserve to be celebrated as they are something you are learning from.
If it takes one or a million attempts at something, so be it; even some of the most intelligent people haven’t got to where they are without a few failed attempts; leading world scientists haven’t become leading scientists without failures, teachers, lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, and business owners, have all had there fair share of failures before they succeeded.
Don’t hold yourself back for fear of failing; everyone fails on the first, second, third or however many attempts. Instead, do that thing you are scared of failing at; it might be the thing you are really good at after a few tries. Maybe it's a new skill, skateboarding, riding a bike, swimming, driving (I’m currently learning to drive, so this is a big one for me), riding a horse, buying your first house, applying for your first job or a new job. Whatever it is, try, fail and succeed; just don’t give up, don’t quit when it gets hard, don’t stop when you fail, learn and become all the better for it.
Here are some examples of things that were made from failing or mistakes, which we use in day to day life. Cornflakes, chocolate chip cookies, microwave ovens, ink-jet printers, penicillin, plastic, the list goes on, all of these inventions were made by people from different industries.
There are, of course, many things that didn’t take off that were made by mistake or even invented to better our lives in one way or another, but that’s life, some things surprisingly work, and some don’t. But not one of the inventors of these products gave up; they kept trying until they got a product that they could work with, sell or use themselves. Nintendo, Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Theranos (which is now no longer a company after its 2016 scandal,) Ford, and Coca-cola, to name a few again the list goes on.
This just shows that even big companies that we think have it all together and get it right all of the time have their moments of failures. However, they still kept on trying and came up with something that was at least a little better than the product that failed. Still, again this shows that you have to keep trying, don’t let failure put you off. If Apple hadn’t failed, we wouldn’t have iPads, or if Nintendo hadn’t failed, we wouldn't now have VR to the quality that it is.
The lesson that I’m trying to get across from this long post is don’t give up; it’s that simple. It doesn't matter how many times you fail, just don’t quit, and I really can’t stress that enough if you haven’t been able to tell already with how much I have repeated that throughout this post. The thing that you are failing could be something incredible with more practice; whatever it is that you keep trying to succeed in, please share in the comments; I would love to know what you are working on and what will make you succeed at your skill, job, hobby etc.
Let's finish with a three-deep breath breather.
Take one deep breath in through your nose for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. breath out through your mouth for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. and out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1.. final breath in for five 1..2..3..4..5.. hold for 1..2.. last breath out for five 1..2..3..4..5.. no hold here you can now go back to your regular breathing pattern.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read this week's Mindful Monday. I really do appreciate everyone who takes the time to read them and listens to what I have to say.
Love always
Thinking Out Loud xx :D
Fail, fail, and fail again; fail until you don’t; the more you fail, the more you learn, and failures are life's lessons for us to learn from.
