F-ing Fabulous Failure

Yesterday I experienced failure. (Not my first time BTW.) It was a big fat epic failure that caused me to mentally beat myself up for hours.   I had all the human emotions;  anger, frustration, embarrassment, shame, and sadness. I felt so much anger towards myself and the crummy situation, and I should know better - I am a life coach after all. 

Here is what happened.  I had arranged a small group of veterinary professionals to record a podcast with me about dealing with curbside medicine, Covid-19, and life in veterinary medicine this past year.  Saturday, I had assembled the group of five veterinarians and veterinary technicians for a podcast recording over zoom. You see where this is going, right?

I have done many recordings this way in the past and have not had any trouble.  Saturday there was a little sound glitch in the beginning that caused me to make an adjustment, which in turn caused the podcast not to record properly.  One beautiful hour of work lost forever!  Not only did I waste my time and energy, I wasted the time and energy of 5 other beautiful generous people. It was so frustrating. 

How did I change my thinking about this failure and use it to move forward?

By knowing and accepting that failure is not personal.  I failed but I am not a failure. When we go into shame or blame mode, our little mistakes and failures feel so personal.  We give them too much power.  Once I processed my negative feelings - and it took a little time - I accepted that the recording was gone and I just needed to try again.

By thinking, this failure is temporary.  "I am fine, the veterinarians are fine, and things did not work out the way that I had planned".  My failure is temporary, and even if my brain is telling me that I am an idiot, I can choose to be grateful that the people were so kind to record with me once, they will probably be willing to do it again. 

I choose to remember that:

• Failure is uncomfortable, but I can handle it.
• Failure is something that I do, not something that I am.
• Failure is an opportunity for learning something that I didn’t know before. (Believe me, I learned something about this)
• Failure is temporary
• Failure is part of my journey. 

I will live on to record my podcast another day, if I choose to learn from my mistakes and accept my f-ing fabulous failure.

Dr. Julie Cappel

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ― Thomas A. Edison