When I first studied Meta-Coaching, my trainers Michelle Duval and Dr Hall introduced us to some gestures that have become a way of life now for me.
They had us do a type of ‘high five’ with the saying “how fantastic!” for whenever we or someone got something right.
They also made a point of celebrating failures – or those moments when we stuff up and have a learning moment. The gesture and saying was a palm to the head, with the exclamation “how fascinating!”
I was also introduced to this presupposition of Neuro-Semantics:
“There is no such thing as failure – only feedback.”
Dr Hall shared how one of his highest values was learning, and at the end of each day he has this ritual of recalling at least 3 mistakes he made that day. If he hadn’t made any mistakes, he knew he wasn’t learning.
When things don’t go as we thought, that is when we learn how to tweak something and develop that skill or knowledge further.
The perceived “failure” is actually information being fed back to us about how to grow and develop.
I’ve never seen failure the same since that day. And with some other useful frames of mind, failure is no longer something to fear at all in my world.
ACTION: So here is my invitation to you: on Fridays, join us in the Courage Circle and let’s take stock of the week and count our failures, BUT with the twist of turning them into FEEDBACK.
All you need to do is take the 2 minutes to check in with yourself, and when you have gained your learning/s just type the hashtag #FFF in a post in the group. No need to share your actual “how fascinating!” moment (i.e. your failure/feedback/learning moment), unless you are feeling brave enough and wanting to exercise your courage muscle as well.
For now, it counts to just count your learning moments!
PS: 😉 Interesting all the F’s – failure, feedback, fantastic, fascinating Friday!
