The Happiest Animal on Earth moments...

If you've ever watched the series Ted Lasso, then you'll likely understand the reasoning behind this week's essay.  In the series Ted poses the question to Sam "What is the happiest animal on earth?"

I suppose this phrase struck a chord with me because it's a great piece of advice.  Why you ask?   Well, firstly I would encourage you to check out the link above before I delve too into the topic too much more.

Okay, by now you will have watched the clip...

It's a piece of advice I wish I had known throughout my sporting career, but also during my corporate career because it's both a something we can all understand because if you're like me will have experienced it first-hand.

Even the greats like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods learned this early in their careers.  As an example, Michael Jordan missed more than 9,000 shots in his career. He lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times he was trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again.  However, he believes that this is the reason why he succeeded.

He was unafraid to take the shot irrespective how many times he took the shot and lost.  He always took the shot if it was on offer, but it was more than that.  He was able to quickly forget the failure and moved on.

No, to be truly successful we need to be the happiest animal in the world... the goldfish and have a ten-second memory.  It is all part of letting go and not holding failure as a barrier to moving on and trying again.

There are several quotes from Thomas Edison that resonate with me on this topic.  He often said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".  Another is "I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that it won't work" or “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

At the time there was some controversy as he was often seen as a failure, but he clearly understood the ten-second rule, although perhaps not in this context as the happiest animal on earth.

So many of us get stuck in the cycle of failure and beating ourselves up over these small moments which only compounds the angst that accompanies any form of failure.  This often leads to performance anxiety which is detrimental to being at our peak and sometimes blocks us from trying again.

Many of us wait for the perfect moment to take that shot and either delay too long and miss the opportunity, or never actually take shot through fear of failure or rejection.

As I've researched this topic there is also the school of thought that says that if take very shot it "enables people to take poor shots with real consequences". Indeed, there is a grain of truth to this line of thought if you're not prepared, done your homework/research and are prepared for all eventualities then it could be disastrous.

There are no substitutes for preparation, training, and hard work, but if you've prepared thoroughly then don't procrastinate or pause.  Failure, is a normal part of the process for long term success, knowing full well, and accepting the fact that there will be challenges and setbacks along the way.

Can you imagine looking back at where you are today in five years from now and regretting that you didn't take that shot or made that move at work or in your personal life.

Life truly is about "having a go" as we say in Australia.  Just putting your best foot forward and giving your all, knowing full well that there are no guarantees.  A side effect to sometimes failing is that it builds your inner resilience.

From a personal perspective, one of the challenges with being a parent is that want to ensure our children are successful, yet too much oversight and not allowing them to fail is detrimental to them developing their resilience.  It's a natural part of life, but if we overly protect them from failure then this may lead to long term challenges.

Firstly, at the first sign of failure they may baulk at trying again as the fear of failure or rejection is so overwhelming and unfamiliar that it stops them in their tracks.  Or they are so broken by the experience that it may push them into a depressive state.

Clearly, neither of which is good...  And so, teaching your kids from an early age that having the memory of a goldfish is a valuable capability that will serve them well over the course of their lives is important.

Indeed, as adults we sometimes look at concepts like this and ignore them or brush them off thinking they are only meant for high profile athletes.  Yet we don't see that in our lives we take shots every day in so many ways.  True, they may not be as public or impactful, by we can never achieve if we don't strive to achieve.

So, my advice is to become the happiest animal on earth... be the goldfish and try again!

Until next week.

Ciao!