Success leave clues… and don’t discount the teaching power of failure

failure-and-success

Tony Robbins says, “Model someone who is already getting the results that you want. If you want to accelerate the tempo of mastery, find somebody that is already getting the result and figure out how they do it, and do the same thing. Success leaves clues.”

I believe in that concept and another important aspect of it is modeling someone who is at the top of their game in doing what you are attempting to do. If you want to be a great tennis player and have an average teacher you will only become a little less than average player. If you want to become great — find an outstanding teacher. Only from them will you learn the little pieces of mastery that separate the average from the outstanding.

What if, however, you want to travel into the unknown and rise above the best or doing something that no one has done before. Yes, you can still model success clues that have led other people to go down the road to the unknown that lies beyond. However, listen attentively to the failures that almost surely happened along the way which, in the end, were most likely key pieces to their puzzle. True, you might be able to learn from their failures directly but more importantly you need set yourself up to learn as much as they did for when failure happens to you — because it will.

When living in a world moving as quickly as it is (and, yes, it is different from how your parents grew up no matter how old you are) you cannot afford the time needed trying to be perfect. You need to move, react, course correct, and move again quickly to be that model of success for others. Forget analysis paralysis — it is more like death than paralysis at this speed. Failure is a part of the clues that lead to success. Remember, Life isn’t about what happens to you, it’s about how you handle what happens to you.

Originally posted on Medium