Feeling like a failure has little correlation with actually failing.
There are people who have failed more times than you and I can count, who are happily continuing in their work.
There are others who have achieved more than most of us can imagine, who go to work each day feeling inadequate, behind, and yes, like failures and frauds.
These are not cases of extraordinary outliers. In fact, external data is almost useless in figuring out whether or not someone is going to adopt the narrative of being a failure.
Failure (as seen from the outside) is an event. It's a moment when the spec isn't met, when a project isn't completed as planned.
Feelings, on the other hand, are often persistent, and they are based on stories. Stories we tell ourselves as much as stories the world tells us.
As a result, if you want to have a feeling, you'll have it. If you want to seek a thread to ravel, you will, you'll pull at it and focus on it until, in fact, you're proven right, you are a failure.
Here's the essential first step: Stop engaging with the false theory that the best way to stop feeling like a failure is to succeed.
Thinking of one's self as a failure is not the same as failing. And thus, succeeding (on this particular task) is not the antidote. In fact, if you act on this misconception, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of new evidence that you are, in fact, correct in your feelings, because you will ignore the wins and remind yourself daily of the losses.
Instead, begin with the idea that the best way to deal with a feeling is to realize that it's yours.
October 2, 2015
Is it that simple? Can you choose to make an impact?
Of course it is. You can choose to merely do your job, to meet spec and to follow someone else's path.
Or, you can dig in and transform your contribution. You can level up, taking advantage of the world-changing array of tools and connections our new economy is making available.
Access to tools is a small part of it. Mostly, it’s about taking control over where you go and what you do with your gifts.
The dislocations of our time are significant, the sinecures are disappearing, there is real stress and pain as the world changes. We can't control that, but we can control how we respond to it.
Those changes open the door for those that choose to stand up and learn to contribute. A chance to be put on the hook instead of let off of it.
The altMBA is a workshop designed to push you to see more clearly, speak more effectively and create change that lasts. It’s an intensive online group experience that works. You don’t have to travel, but you do have to be prepared to work hard.
When I set out to create this process, I decided to push it uphill. Not to make it easier or faster, but to make it more difficult, to have it take longer. Not to make it more digital and scalable, but to make it more handmade and require a smaller scale. Mostly, not to let people off the hook, but to create a process that would help a few people transform themselves.
This $3,000 workshop is for people who want to move up to leadership in their current organization, accelerate their indie projects and take control over their agenda. It’s designed to be the most significant lever for change we could create. This is our third session, and I can say with confidence that it's working.
You have far more potential than people realize. You have something to say, a mission to go on, a contribution that matters. I’d like to help you unlock that potential.
If you know someone who needs this sort of opportunity, I hope you'll share it with them.
There are {15} days left to apply. I’ll post {reminders} now and then over the next two weeks. I hope you’ll get a chance to check it out, but even if you don’t apply, go ahead and use this moment, right now, to make a choice.
Level up.
October 1, 2015
