Tough (Question) Tuesday: What are you at risk of failing at?
I attended a webinar last week where Penelope Trunk interviewed Seth Godin, & knew I had to blatently rip off a question that struck me with exclamation points & lightning bolts:
What are you at risk of failing at?
Meet me in the comments & tell me why you might be falling right on your face in the (near?) future. If you can’t think of something, then you’re playing it safe, & “safe” is a 4 letter word. Pick something with a nice failure risk & commit to it in the comments. We’ll do our best to keep you from tumbling, or at least give ya nothin’ but a scrape.
Tags: Tough (Question) Tuesday
May 4th, 2010 at 3:10 am
Yikes; talk about timely! Well, I'm not currently at risk, but I will be in a few days, when I share with the world a couple of things: my new Etsy store, full of my food and nature photography; and my services as a portrait photographer. I've been preparing to share this stuff for months, and now all I need to do to put it out in the world is to click a couple of buttons. But man, it's scary, because there's so much potential "failure" represented in those few little clicks.
May 4th, 2010 at 4:22 am
Kylie, that's so frickin' exciting! Holy crapamoley! I'm so excited to have your photos available to the masses – you're super talented & it's awesome that you're sharing it to the world. Get it, girl! Get it!
As for me, this whole full-time coaching thing is a freakin' crapshoot, but I know I'm giving myself the best odds to beat the house. Even if I don't have any sessions lined up for a day, I'm still working 8+ hours on various projects I have going on, & they'll add up to total awesomeness. I have to remember that I'm still building the foundation here. Yeah – I like that.
May 4th, 2010 at 4:56 am
I suppose I too am at risk of failing at the launch of my etsy shop. But it's funny how less scary that seems now that I've really committed to the idea of doing it. If it fails, I'm not really any worse off than I am right now, right?
May 4th, 2010 at 5:40 am
Right now, the thing I'm most scared of failing at is finding what it is I want to do with myself in the first place. I have a Renaissance Soul (still waiting for the book to come in from the library), so my biggest fear is that I'll leave my job, only to flounder from project to project with nothing keeping my interest long enough to sustain itself.
Still, the worst thing that happens in that situation is I go back to the corporate world, or find some other form of employment. The scariest part would be feeling like I failed and am not capable of living my dream life! But that definitely won't keep me from giving it a try. I just hope my Renaissance Soul helps me instead of hindering me!
May 4th, 2010 at 5:49 am
I am a walking mountain of potential failure — from copywriting assignments that could (hypothetically) go terribly awry, to resume designs that could (possibly) prevent a client from scoring their dream job, to literary events that could (maybe) tank.
But I strongly believe that I will succeed. Why? Cuz I haven't given myself any other option.
But. But but but. Secretly in the back of my mind, I know that even if I fail — even I lose every material possession I've earned, every professional connection I've forged, and have to rent a shabby broom closet apartment in the slums of Minneapolis — I will be okay. S'long as I have a futon to sleep on and a couple nice t-shirts, I can thrive.
May 4th, 2010 at 6:25 am
I am working on launching my first product – a 4 wk home study coaching course – and I'm terrified that absolutely no one will buy it. It's my biggest fear right now and it's enough to make me waver at times but I'm trying to stay committed and keep on truckin!
Great question!
Nailah
May 4th, 2010 at 10:20 am
@Natalie — I just finished The Renaissance Soul this past weekend and it felt so good to finally realize that I'm not a flake, but a unique and different kind of thinker. I hope it helps you as much as it helped me.
I am at risk of failing to finish the writing workshop I committed myself to. I am at risk of failing as a home educator for my children. (I'm still just in the beginning stages of preparing to homeschool.) These are things that I'm really trying to focus on right now. Thanks for the tough question
May 5th, 2010 at 6:13 am
@Tiffany – Whadda kick-ass attitude! It's like, "What am I losing if I don't have it to begin with?" Your Etsy shop is gonna rawk!
@Natalie – Are you making sure that the career you're pursing is supporting your Renaissance Soul? You'll love the book because it breaks down all the best career-type for Renaissance Souls & what you need to look for in a career to make that part of you happy. See, I'm a coach, but I'm also a writer, a speaker, a marketer, an admin…it's all wrapped up in my Entrepreneur title! My Renaissance Soul likes that because I'm not put into 1 box, even though my title is specifically "creative career coach." Does that make sense?
@Alexandra – For some reason, I see you on a futon in a shabby place with a pile of loved T-shirts, sleeping with a teddy bear & smiling. Isn't the belief that you'll always be able to thrive (I love that word!) the most awesomest belief of all?
@Nailah – The gift of fear! I try to look at fear as a gift, because it's like a big lighted sign that tells you what your roadblock is before you even approach it. If you think of all the things that you can do now to boost sales, it'll propel you even further! Fear is nice like that.
@Alisha – Like you said, you're in the beginning steps right now. Just focus on the little ones you can take every day & you'll wind up exactly where you're supposed to. Promise
May 12th, 2010 at 9:59 am
I'm currently in a job that I'm not too crazy about with the potential of moving up very soon, but I'm scared that if I do move up I'm floating further away from what I actually want to do, but I don't know what I want to do? wow that's confusing!
May 19th, 2010 at 5:11 am
Danielle, sorry for the late response! It's not confusing at all, by the way. In fact, it seems like you know you don't want to be in this job – nevertheless one that's higher up – but you're unsure what it is that you wanna do. Head over to the top of this page & click on the Resources button. Print out every Eye-Opening Exercise & start filling it out whenever you can. That'll help bring your strengths, interests, work values & personality type to the surface so you discover what you wanna be when you grow up. Fun!