A Baby's Approach to Success

"Success is Failure Turned Inside Out."

As far as I can tell, no one learns from their successes. It is our failures that teach us what it takes to succeed in life. It is experiencing failing at relationships and learning from them that allows us to have the best relationships of them all. It is falling on our face financially that allows us to experience prosperity in abundance. Failure is not something to fear, it is something to learn from and then move through it to the other side.

Babies fail 100% of the time in their initial attempts to walk, talk and read. It is through their failures that they learn from their mistakes and eventually achieve success in these areas of their life. The difference between a baby and an adult, when it comes to failure, is that babies don't judge the idea of failing. In fact, the concept of failure is foreign to them.

When a baby starts walking and falls on its butt, time and time again, they have no concept that they failed. For babies, failure is a "life experience," without judgment.

On the other hand, adults have lots of judgments about failure. An adult sees failure as a statement about themselves. Adults take failure to mean they are inadequate, not smart enough, not deserving or lacking in some area of their lives. This is simply not true.

Can you imagine being an adult and having to learn how to walk, talk and read for the first time. Oh, how painful that would be... The pain would be a result of our notions about failure rather than the actual experience itself.

A baby doesn't think about walking, it just does it using the trial and error method. On the other hand, as an adult with a fully developed logical mind we would sit there and think about all the risks involved in walking before even attempting to take our first steps.

Imagine yourself as a adult sitting on the floor getting ready to learn to walk.

"Hmm, I watched my brother learn to walk. The first time he stood up, he fell down and started crying. I don't want to get hurt so I am not sure whether I even want to walk. On the other hand, if I learn to walk I could move around the house faster and explore more things that interest me. However, I remember my brother walking into the closet and closing the door on himself. He couldn't get out and started crying again. I'll bet it was dark and scary in that closet. I don't want that to happen to me but if I did learn to walk I could find out what my mother keeps up on the kitchen table that she won't let me see. Is it worth the risk??? I remember the other day, my brother was walking and he tripped. He received a big bump on his head when the wall wouldn't move out of his way. He really cried that time. Hmm, it seems to me the risks involved in learning to successfully walk aren't worth it to me."

As silly as this little story may sound to you, that is exactly the way adults think when it comes to doing the things, in life, they really want to do. Fear of failure stops most adults in their tracks and that's why only a handful of people succeed in making their most heartfelt dream coming true.

Remember this, you pay the price of failure every single day, of your life, when you deprive yourself of the right to have what it is you want out of life. On the other hand, you pay the price of success only once when you go after what you want and don't stop until you achieve it. In addition, the knowledge you acquire and the skills you develop along the way can never be taken away from you.

When it comes to achieving what you want out of life, think more like a baby, don't think at all, just do it. Thinking about things is fine, to a point, but it is taking ACTION that make dreams come true.

When I was younger and stuck in a rut of indecisiveness and paralyzed by my own doubts and fears my Dad said something to me. What he said empowers me to this day, over 30 years after he shared his simple wisdom with me.

"Do something, even if it is wrong, do something!"

Following his advice, when in doubt, I take ACTION and do something even if that "something" turns out to be the wrong. As I discovered, taking action, even if I am not sure it is the right action, dissolves fear and doubt instantly. Taking action builds confidence and if the action turns out to be wrong, I learn from it and learn what the right thing is to do. When I do nothing, I learn nothing at all and the dreams I am dreaming never come true.