Failing Forward ...

I just finished reading a book by John C. Maxwell , Failing Forward. The subtitle is what intrigued me: “Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success.”

Nobody likes failures in fact we all like to avoid failure. John Maxwell has a positive way to point out that misshapes and mistakes are necessary for us to learn. Today, there is so much emphasis on getting a good education and get that degree. But the most important lessons in life are the ones we experience ourselves. And the greatest lessons we learn from are our own mistakes.
Mr. Maxwell points out that we might be making mistakes, but we are not a failure. For most of us, that may be great awakening. With a negative mindset, any setback, any obstacle, any twist in the road, can just completely stop us in our most enthusiastic endeavors.

It takes a different kind of attitude to see beyond these hindrances to stay on course and be persistent. You have to have a great dream and a strong determination for your goal to continue when ships are down. To nurture that dream you need the support of some friends or family. You also need some motivation on a daily base like reading books and listening to positive materials.

Most of all when things go wrong you can’t stand still. You need to move forward, get into action, any kind of action. E.G. if you lose your job during this down economy, find a lower paying job, or go on unemployment, but volunteer your services. Mr. Maxwell gives many of accounts of real people who did not give up and thought of something else to do. You certainly don’t want to go on that downward spiral of falling into depression or feeling sorry for yourselves.

There are so many points I liked about this book but I mostly enjoyed reading about “famous people;” people from all walks of life who took their failures as stepping stones.

The other point I liked was how Mr. Maxwell explained about the “fear cycle.” Fear is an underlying factor for failure. To break the fear cycle we need to step out of the fear-inaction-inexperience-inability cycle. We need to do whatever it takes to get out of that rut. Being willing to make mistakes, getting moving, getting into action, will give you the experience to get what you set out to do.

So let’s fail forward… .

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