High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 255: How to Fail Forward

Episode Date: June 4, 2019

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford.   High performers view mistakes as mis-takes. They learn and burn. This mindset helps them fail forward and stay confident, motivated and excited about what they are doing.    Power Phrase this Week: “I commit to fail forward. I learn and burn realizing that failure can be mindfully learned from.”

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. And we have Dr. Sindra Kampoff in studio with us today for High Performance Mindset on the Country Club. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Great to have you in. It's a good looking morning, getting into what looks like a nice week, and we're going to talk about in. It's a good looking morning, getting into what looks like a nice week. And we're going to talk about failing.

We are. But it's good. You know, that's one of the things that I struggle with when, you know, as a coach of young athletes or a parent and things like that. I really like that whole sometimes you win, sometimes you learn thing people say because, you know, you don't lose or you don't fail. When you fail, you learn from it and try to get better. And I know that's the direction we're going to try to go with this today. So the topic is how to fail forward. And we start with a quote. What do you have? Quote by Henry Ford.

He said, failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. There you go. So give us a good example to start with. I've been spending a lot of my summer so far at baseball games on the weekends, probably like most parents. And I sit there and I'm observing. And to be honest, I'm pretty quiet, mostly because what the research says is when kids are asked what they want their parents to say to them during the game, they say that they want them to say nothing. So I try just to kind of be quiet and watch and only say things that are positive. And I watched these fourth graders yesterday fail, but they never gave up. And I tried not to get hung up as a parent. I think it's really important that we don't, nor do I want my

son to get hung up on that. And why, you might ask, is because, you know, failure is really an opportunity to begin again. All right. So what are we talking about today in regards to failing forward? So in practice nine in my book, Beyond Grit, I talk about how failure is inevitable and really essential for us to perform at our best. It doesn't need to paralyze us. In fact, you know, I think as a leader in your house or on your team or in your business, or even a leader as in yourself, I think you need to communicate to those around you that failure is a good thing, like a learning tool. And it's not something we need to punish ourselves for or punish others for. So let's talk about why this

really matters. It matters because the world's best have failed many times, but they really view these mistakes as mistakes. And viewing failure as shameful actually creates like anxiety and tension, whereas this mindset of like failing forward can help you be more relaxed, get in the zone, and improve your current performance. So how do you suggest that we fail forward? Yeah, so I think the key is to having a learning mindset. In this book, Dr. Michelle Sager, her book called No Sweat, she talks about with a learning mindset, you view setbacks and failures. They don't really enter the picture because they're naturally reframed as opportunities that we can mindfully learn from. And so she gives an example of like when a kid touches a hot stove for the first time that, you know, she doesn't consider herself a failure.

She just learns from it. And by having more of this learning mindset, we can see failure as giving us positive energy, as helping us discover new strategies and building resilience. So you've got a specific strategy from your book that's going to help us to learn to have a learning mindset. What is that? So I call it learn and burn. And what I mean by this is first thing you do when you make a mistake or you fail is you just think, okay, what did I learn? And just ask yourself, what can I do next time? Because you can't do anything about the past. Just ask yourself, what can I do next time? What did I learn? And then the key is you got to burn. And burn means let it go. And having a burn phrase like next play, move on,

or an action can really help you kind of move on quickly. So learn and burn. Learn and burn. And that's easy to remember too. So it should help you get along in the process of learning how to fail forward. How do you summarize this topic today? High performers view mistakes as mistakes. They learn and burn and this mindset helps them fail forward, stay confident, motivated and excited about what they're doing. And our power phrase for this week? I commit to fail forward. I learn and burn, realizing that failure can be mindfully learned from. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's

podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.