Failing Forward

I'm currently reading a book by John Maxwell called "Failing Forward". As a Type A perfectionist, I am often surprised by my own limitations. It seems to come as a great shock to me when I can't do everything perfectly. (I need to take the advice of one of the chapters: "Get over yourself. Everyone else has.") In Maxwell's typical style, he intersperses illustrations of business people who failed but still moved forward, while giving guidelines for what it takes to keep on going, even after you feel like you've failed and you want to give up.

Maxwell outlines 15 steps for failing forward. I've listed them below, along with my summary of each chapter in brackets.

1. Realize there is one major difference between average people and achieving people. [Their perception of and response to failure.]
2. Learn a new definition of failure. [Failures can be learning opportunities.]
3. Remove the "you" from failure. [Failure is an event that happens, not a definition of your identity.]
4. Take action and reduce your fear. [If you've failed repeatedly, you become afraid to try again. Take action to overcome your fear and move forward.]
5. Change your response to failure by accepting responsibility.
6. Don't let the failure from outside get inside you. [Nothing that happens to you can make you a failure. The only sure way to be a failure is to let those outside circumstances define you.]
7. Say good-bye to yesterday. [Don't let failures from the past define your future.]
8. Change yourself and your world changes. [Sometimes we are doing things we are not gifted at. If we work from our strengths, everyone benefits: ourselves and everyone around us.]
9. Get over yourself and start giving yourself. [Stop being so selfish and start focusing on others.]
10. Find the benefit in every bad experience.
11. If at first you do succeed, try something harder. [No risk, no reward.]
12. Learn from a bad experience and make it a good experience.
13. Work on the weakness that weakens you. [Face your weaknesses and try to work on them.]
14. Understand there's not much difference between failure and success. [The difference is persistence; not giving up.]
15. Get up, get going, get over it.