Your Foundational Key to Success

We live in a very competitive world. By nature there must always be a winner and a loser. This, however all depends on who's rules you are playing by. See, you can only win or loose if you know what constitutes winning and loosing.

Winning and losing in life is an internal game and only you get to decide whether you are a success or a failure. The BIG question is not whether your results are a success but rather if you are actually producing a result? There is a very powerful idea that can transform the way you approach your goals and even your life. The idea is this: Everything worth doing is worth doing poorly.

At first it might not sound like an incredibly positive statement and it probably isn't, but what it will do is to get you to take action. Without action there are no rewards. Out of the fear of failure most people never even attempt something because they are afraid that the results they will produce will not be ‘perfect'. It is not the fear of the result, but the fear of how it will reflect on them that actually prevents them from taking action.

Unfortunately we live in a culture that looks down on so called failure. The truth however is that without failure you just won't get anywhere. Those who are extremely successful are the few who's learned to eliminate the judgment of failure all together. You and only you have the ability to make something good or bad, right or wrong, successful or a failure.

The very nature of how we learn something as human beings relies on failure. It is the only way we can adjust our actions for it provides us with the necessary feedback that allows us to be more efficient, more effective and more fulfilled. Remember that you can never learn less. You can only learn more.

If you are going to wait until everything is ‘just right' before you take action to produce a ‘flawless result' then I've got some bad news for you. It ain't gonna happen! So called failure is your friend for it's your best teacher. In business there is a concept that can be applied everywhere in your life. I call it The Need For Speed and it basically means that if you are going to survive in the business world today you have to be quick. If you are going to fail you want to fail fast. You don't want to spend 2 years developing a losing product. The only way to know though is to actually do it.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly - at least. Do it. It is the only way you would know and it's the only way you would be able to learn. Failure as your guidance system works like sonar. When big fishing vessels track schools of fish they use sonar as their guidance system. The way it works is that it would send out a signal and wait for the signal to bounce back. Depending on the information that comes back; the feedback they are able to direct their course to find exactly what they are looking for.

Face it; the first time you do something you usually do it poorly. But, when you keep going you always improve, and the improvement is not only a result of your feedback (or failure) but it relies on failure. You have to stop judging your results as success or failure. Judge it by the fact that you've taken action. Only your actions will produce results. There are no failures in life. There are only outcomes. There are only the results and consequences to action or inaction.

Never judge your results for you never know what effect it really has. I remember reading the story of the guy that ‘invented' the yellow Post-It notes. He was actually a scientist developing the world's strongest glue. Out of his failure to develop the strongest glue he ‘accidentally' stumbled upon a multi million dollar product that has since become a household brand. Sometimes your greatest failures carry the seeds of your greatest successes. Judge not your results but ACT. Every idea is worth a doing, even if it's only a poor effort. Make the mistakes and use it as guidance. The contemplation of an idea or dream will never make it real. Don't let the illusion of failure keep you from turning your dreams and desire into reality.

Failure is your friend if you use it appropriately. It is your guidance system. No matter what, just keep taking action and move confidently in the direction of your dreams and your desires. Action is the foundational key to success.