Rob de Ville is a buddy of mine, a really solid personal trainer based out of the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. I wanted to feature this short blog of his because it dovetails nicely with our focus on the Fixed Mindset vs. the Growth Mindset. In this piece, Rob perfectly captures the willingness to challenge yourself, fail and learn that is the hallmark of the Growth Mindset.

Image of Rob de Ville, personal trainer in Grand Rapids.Did your year get off to a good start? Already taken the first few steps towards achievement? We hate to tell you this but your journey won’t always be a smooth road. Today you feel energized. Ready to take on the world. Tomorrow could be a totally different story. But it’s alright to experience failure. It’s ok not to be on your A-game every single day. Fail early. Fail fast. Fail often. Here’s why low points are important and how you can learn from them.

A Failure is often a Lesson in Disguise

Look up failure in the dictionary and what do you see? A lack of success. Not meeting a desirable objective. Defeat. Downfall. This might be what the word stands for, but this is never the meaning of failure in real life. Ok so you did something wrong. Made a poor judgement. Or you just weren’t ready at that time. But this brief moment of failure is not the end. It’s actually a chance to learn and come back with a stronger, smarter approach.

Even the Best Fail

Those who have failed often are usually those with the greatest success. The Beatles were rejected by a record company before they became one of the biggest bands in world history. Steven Spielberg was rejected from the same university 3 times to study theater and film, and still went on to become one of the most popular directors and producers in film history. Even Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, was rejected from his high school’s varsity basketball team. These great people all failed. But more importantly they all continued. And went on to become the best at what they do. Remember that next time you think it’s all over.

Failure Proves your Passion

If you never try anything new, then of course you won’t fail. But if you don’t fail, you also don’t really succeed. Failure shows you took a chance. A risk. A leap of faith. You wanted something so bad that you forgot your fear and went for it. This only occurs when you have passion. Passion is what life is all about. And whenever there is passion present, you will always succeed.

If you’re still in fear of failure;

 Now is the time to face that fear. Work with me and make this the year you learned from your mistakes. The year you said goodbye to boundaries and took a step outside of your comfort zone.