What’s a winner?
I received an email about my post How winners get lucky. It was a question about the “fear of missing out on the secret sauce”. The reader writes:
I always have this itch to check another person doing the thing that I’m about to do, even multiple people doing it, before I can get myself to work on something.
I think a lot of people can recognize themselves in this. I sure can. It can show up in all parts of life, from spirituality to launching a blog.
It’s the same thought pattern, repeating itself in different disguises. Just one more retreat, another video, another translation of the Tao Te Ching, one more podcast, a few more hours on the cushion, one last online course...
Then I’m ready. Then I’ve arrived.
It’s an illusion. As long as we believe these thoughts, we will never really arrive. The finish line will always be just a little bit ahead.
Why do we have these thoughts? In the end, it comes down to fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of not being enough.
We would never admit it, though. Partly because it feels embarrassing, but mostly because we aren’t even aware of it. We’re so used to it that it has become our natural state.
Instead of trying to dig endlessly for the root of fear, let’s change the narrative. Instead of only consuming other people’s teachings, let’s remind ourselves that we already have access to the greatest teacher of them all: experience.
Real life experience is the “secret sauce” to success, even if we fail a hundred times along the way. Failing isn’t even failure, as long as we pick ourselves up and move forward with those lessons in mind.
Seeing failure for what it truly is, an important and valuable lesson, that’s the road to success.
What’s a winner? Someone who doesn’t mind failing.
Reader’s reflections