Kate's Story

Like many fellow Humans I have constant battles with failing. I find it hard to control my saboteurs, they make me fear failure and tell me there's no point in trying.

Before working with Fail Forward I had no idea how to identify these saboteurs - these thought-patterns which sabotage goal-setting and learning.

Now I'm able to identify them, I'm able to pinpoint when my saboteurs are making me fearful and when to stop listening to them. I've even got some of them right now, while I write this blog post, lingering in my ears and looming over my laptop. My saboteurs aren't winning today. One - nil to me. ;-)

One of my on-going life goals is to create work I can perform, to write and share stories. Fail Forward is helping me do this by giving me the tools and skills to cope with, not only the fear of failure, but also it's aftermath.

"Because failure does happen and it's okay."

It may be uncomfortable, it may be painful, but since using the Fail Forward toolkit exercises I've learnt that failure is healthy. I've learnt that failure can be used in a positive way and that it's an inevitable part of learning. Failing is learning. And learning gives you the skills to accomplish your goals.

Last year I started writing some comedy monologues, which was a goal I was wanting to achieve for a long time. Part of achieving the goal was to not only write the monologues, but share them by filming myself perform them and putting the recordings online. I got various kinds of feedback, some good, some not so good. My biggest fear was people telling me they weren't funny. And guess what?

Some people did tell me they weren't funny. Did I get disppointed? Upset? Defeated? Of course. As far as I was concerned I'd failed. But you know what? (And this was probably the most important thing). I got over it. I got over it much more quickly, smoothly, and healthily, than I ever would have done before I started doing Fail Forward.

I moved on and realised:

"The thing I was worried about happening has happened. I'm still alive. I'm still breathing. And I still want to create more. I still want to share more of my creations with the world. (Whether the world likes it or not). So there. Take that world."

And now, if the same thing happens again, I'll remember that I recovered last time. Plus, I've aquired more tools now and am learning how to make my work better by actually doing it and not letting my saboteurs stop me in my tracks. Because if I don't do it, how will I get better?