Creative Habit Naming – Part 3

Welcome back!

As you probably remember from the first part of Creative Habit Naming mini-series which was posted last November, I’ve discovered a very effective technique for mastering your habits: creative habit naming.

The idea is pretty simple: when you’re working out a particular habit, every little helps to stay motivated and interested enough. When it comes to mastering habits, creative habit naming is a very effective way of making your life easier.

I’ve also identified three main directions in creative habit naming: motivation, progress tracking and positive affirmations. Previous two parts of this mini-series have covered topics on motivation and progress tracking, and today I’m going to talk about the third direction I have identified – positive affirmations.

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CLARITY Workshop in Burren, February 9th-11th

Barry Walsh from People Development Co has contacted me recently regarding his CLARITY Workshop.

While normally this kind of news is a definite candidate for the Personal Development Radar, the next workshop is going to be held in Burren on February 9th-11th, and so I’ve decided to post the announcement today.

Before letting Barry speak for himself, I’d like to thank him for contacting me. I’m really excited about starting new relationships with like-minded people here in Ireland. It gives me a certain pride to announce Barry’s work and to help him promote his workshop.

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Failures Make You Stronger

Brian Kim has just posted an excellent article about his Different Way of Looking At Failure. It resonates with some of my thoughts so much, that I decided to make my comments on this a separate post.

I’ve always been a believer that failures make you stronger. I take them as a natural part of my life, and also a crucial part of my personal and professional development. It’s a part of the game you can’t play without. You have virtually no chance to be successful in anything without failing at some stage along your way.

At the same time, the more I talk to people, the more I realize how lucky I am to have such a natural positive look on failures. Most people don’t have it, and it’s rather hard for them to even accept my point of view, let alone to learn the approach and start using it in their lives. So I think that we all can only welcome posts like Brian’s, cause they give us additional understanding of what happens when we fail, and gives us the motivation we need to keep trying until we succeed.

Most failures are rarely irreversible. If you fail once, you’re likely to get another chance to try again later, and its your willingness to give it another go that determines your chances for a success. If you feel too depressed about failing and never find the courage to try again, you may never notice how much you’ve benefited and grown from your failure:

…you will experience pain after you hit failure, but if you rest and feed yourself with more information, knowledge, experience, and ideas, the next time you go at it again, you’ll realize you are stronger than before because of it. It’s that time from the moment you fail to the next time you tackle your goal that makes you stronger than before, provided that you intend to go at it again. If you don’t, you’ll never realize that you were stronger than before and you’ll never start hitting that favorable cycle.

In one of my earlier posts, Quick Recovery, I’ve already given you my advice on failures:

Accept it – everyone fails, and not always it’s due to the personal qualities and features. Quite often there is absolutely nothing you could do. There is nothing anybody could do. So all you do in such situations is to accept this and think one step forward – what needs to be done next to make up for the opportunity you’ve just lost.

I notice now that so far I’ve only spoken of failures as something that happens everyday, perhaps because I’m so used to the idea. But Brian talks about your first failure, which is always the most painful one. That’s an excellent angle, and I’ll definitely write on this topic someday myself.

Your first failure will hurt. Big time. It’ll likely happen during the beginning of your journey, at that long stretch of plateau before you go to the next level. However the moment you experience that failure, the MOMENT you experience that failure, you are stronger than before. It’s only when you go to tackle your goal again that you truly begin to realize it.

You should definitely go and read the whole post yourself, I’m sure you’ll find it useful: Different Way of Looking At Failure.

It Takes Ten Failures To Succeed Once

A friend of mine suggested I read one of recent posts by Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert.

It’s a very interesting and motivational read for anyone who feels how fear of failure keeps them from trying new things and ideas. Scott was never afraid to try his best in any area of his life, no matter how remote from his talent or knowledge it was. The post is called In Over My Head, and it’s a wonderful story of his life so far, aimed to teach us once more: don’t be afraid to fail, cause every time you do – you get one step closer to your success.

In fact, he gives you a formula he had worked out himself over the past years:

… I must confess that I fail miserably about ten times for every one success. (That’s an accurate estimate. I’ve literally kept score.) But interestingly, the failures always involved activities that seemed entirely feasible. I was completely qualified for all of the things that failed. Ironically, I couldn’t even “keep my day job.”

and at the same time, he teaches us to never fear of trying something new:

I mention these stories because over the course of my life, every time I try something different or unlikely, someone says the equivalent of “don’t quit your day job.” When I venture into areas clearly outside of my expertise, I hear “You’re in way over your head.” You’ve probably seen some of those comments in this blog.

Somehow I have to square that seemingly good advice with the fact that I’ve so often been successful against long odds, especially when I’m in way over my head. In fact, that’s when I do my best work. I gave you several examples, but trust me when I say there are plenty more.

Truly, an amazing man and a great story. Go on, read the full story here!

Keys To Success Are Everywhere

Saw this phrase somewhere today, and thought I would share it. Just think about these words for a minute: keys to success are everywhere.

Indeed they are! Our life holds many discoveries and adventures, yet they only come to those who believe in them and never stop searching for more.

I like the positive determination of this idea: it is entirely up to you to decide how successful you will be one day, and there are always limitless opportunities waiting for you.

Does anyone know any more successful affirmations? Please share, every little helps!

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