Even Olympians Fail

Everyone has failed.

We fail deeply and miserably, attempting to get something we desperately want.

Maybe it's the disappointment of not getting into your first-choice college, a failed marriage or relationship, losing a job, or missing a promotion. Life experiences form our stories by our failures as well as our successes.

We are five days into the 2021 Olympic games. During the opening ceremonies, hundreds of the world's greatest athletes marched together. They are the picture of achievement - they are Olympians.?They are the best of the best in their country and the best in the world.??

In two weeks, when we watch the closing ceremony, we will see these very same athletes, many of whom will have failed on the biggest stage of their lives. More than 11,000 athletes are competing in Tokyo, seeking to win one of the 339 medals.?

Embracing failure is one of the hardest things we ask ourselves to do. Intellectually, we know that it often produces the most significant learning, but failure never feels good. It goes against human nature.

When used correctly, failure is a powerful tool for disruption. Reframing the world's most elite athletic competition can help us understand failure in new ways as we recognize the critical role failure plays in our growth and ultimate success.?

High-growth individuals recognize that it is a matter of?when, not?if, they will fail and face the disruption that it brings. When an individual can acknowledge failure as part of the process of becoming a high-growth individual (instead of trying to avoid or ignore it), they will be able to use it as a tool of creation.?

It's critical to recognize that it is not the missteps, the failures, and the mistakes that hold us back. It's perfectionism – the belief that errors are not acceptable. Failure doesn't limit disruption; being ashamed of failure does. So, what do we do with that? How do we use this inevitability as fuel for our rocket ship, rather than allowing it to be lead that weighs us down??Give Failure It's Due, point #6 of the Seven-Point Framework of Personal Disruption?. We need to leverage the learnings and motivation that come with failure.?

Use failure as information. In many ways, we can learn more from failure than we can from our successes. When you fail, instead of putting it out of your mind as quickly as possible, pause and reflect on the experience. What went wrong? What could you have done differently? What will you do next time? Are there skills or knowledge you need to acquire to succeed? Are you on the right S Curve???

Use failure as fuel.?Michael Jordan, one of the greatest professional basketball players, was cut from his high school basketball team. He has said,?"I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."?

Find motivation in your failures. Use it to work harder and free yourself from the perfectionism of always needing to do things right. Failure can release us from the constraints of caution.?

Of course, this is not to suggest that you can accomplish anything with hard work and enough grit. No matter how many laps I swim, I will never beat U.S. Olympian Katie Ledecky or Australian Olympian Ariarne Titmusin in a race. But it is a reminder that even on the right S Curve, setbacks will still happen. Don't let them stop you; instead, let them drive you.?

I encourage you to tune into the Olympics this week and allow yourself to be amazed by the most elite athletes on earth. And remember, they, too, have failed.?

The next time you experience a failure, ask yourself:

• What did you learn that you didn't know before?
• How can you apply what you learned to propel your journey up the S Curve?
• What went right in this failure?
• Was the failure due to a lack of effort??