How can I avoid failure?

An article on some observations on:

  • Success
  • Failure
  • Be there 100%
  • The Idea of Average

Success:

I’ll ask again – How Can I avoid Failure?

In most cases of life, you just can’t. If you look around at your friends, family, Instagram followings, you might see a very small percentage of people who seem to just have everything. And for 1% of these particular people, maybe they hit the nail on the head first time.

For the other 99%, you can bet they failed, failed and failed again before they got there. I also think it takes two things for success, time and hardwork. You can offset one for the other.

If you work harder, you succeed quicker. Take longer, you’ll succeed but it will take a bit longer.For examply, if you’re working on a Start Up and have private funding, you’ll be working hard to succeed, end of.

If you’re working a side hustle to supplement your income, you can take that bit longer as you’re not relying on the business to put food on the table.

Failure in Sport:

Coming from a background of Elite Level Sport, I know a thing or two about success and failure. I worked my way from the bottom to being No. 1 in Ireland in my field and top 40 in the World. Traveled the world visiting amazing places and making great friends along the way. It certainly wasn’t all roses though, you’re talking 10% 1st place and 90% making up the numbers.

To even get to that stage took 10 years of learning. I started my sport at aged 12, messing around for a few years, gravitating towards it then moving away as I hit my teens.

I focused in again when I was 18, started an Olympic Version of the sport that I fell in love with and never looked back. For 8 years I gave it my all, putting career aside as I focused on my goal of the Olympics. In the end I fell just short of 2016, there was no support and no way forward so I made a call and called it a day.

There’s a principle called the 10,000 hours. To get to an elite level, you need to give 10,000 hours of training and competition to get there – I don’t agree exactly, there’s hacks like Psychology to get anywhere quicker but I do agree to an extent.

To succeed, takes time and practise. End of. The guy/gal who looks like they have everything has more than likely failed 10 times before he/she has succeeded.

Give it 100%:

My philosophy is whatever you do, give 100%. Wherever you are, be there 100%. Give your sole focus to what’s in front of you and you’ll thrive.

Leave work at work, leave home at home and leave Sport on the field. It’ll help you achieve clarity in your life and clarity is an important aspect of success.

The Idea of Average:

Growing up, I had a friend who was Mr. Average. Average height, average weight, average intelligence. During an alcohol fueled discussion one night, we were talking about life etc.

Mr. Average stated he was happy being average height, average intelligence and earning the average. I just couldn’t get it, how can anyone aspire to being average?

It’s only after trying and failing so much that I can understand, it was the fear of failure. This guy was happy to work the 9-5 and go for beers every weekend.

Come Monday, rinse and repeat.

He didn’t want to try to be anything different, he grew up with his parents telling him

Go to School, Go to College, Get a Job, Get a Mortgage.

Where does Be Happy feature? Life doesn’t have to be the 9-5 anymore, but that’s a different topic.

Live the Life that makes you happy

My Mantra in life is live the life that makes you happy, earn money by doing what you love. Don’t do a job that you hate to make money to live a life you don’t want to live. How does that make sense?

Become an expert in your field and you’ll make a wage from it. I’ve another friend who loves the outdoors, we used to slag him growing up saying he’d never get anywhere.

The dude has spent his adult life travelling the world skiing, rafting and doing every extreme sport you can think of. Now he runs a successful outdoor pursuits business. He’s literally living the dream, he focused in on what he loved and became an expert in it.

Fail Hard, Fail Quick:

If you have a new business idea, you’re going to want to give it 110%. If you’re going to fail, fail quick so you don’t waste time then move on to the next business idea or pivot and change your focus.

The same goes for sport, trying a new technique? Do everything you can to make it work, work so hard till it fails and then you can look and analyse.

Conclusion:

In conclusion ( this article is a little disjointed, I wanted to get something down before I forgot) in order to succeed and know success, you have to fail and know failure. You have to take the risk, get up from your desk and step off the edge into the unknown.

Fail hard, fail quick and you’ll succeed quicker.

Just remember to aim to live a life that makes you happy full of happiness and love. Be wherever you are 100%, it’s a small mantra that goes a long way.

Thank you for reading, let us know if you agree/disagree!