How To Fail - Lessons From a Motivational Speaker

I was about to be taught a lesson.

I was new to climbing.

With confidence and bravado masking the fact I was shit scared I began climbing a beginner-level route named Iron Butterfly.

40 feet above the ground, legs shaking, arms exhausted I jammed a piece of safety gear into a rock crack and hung onto it to take the weight off my failing arms.

Twang!

Exactly what was happening I wasn’t sure but I knew it was bad.

Blurring streaks of lichen. Blue sky.  A confusion of leaves and tree branches. I was falling, rotating head down. Many sensations but zero pain.

Two large rocks footed the cliff: One the size of a washer/dryer, the other the size of a microwave oven. Separating them, a human-head size gap. I landed head-first into the gap and my shoulders took all the impact.

I blacked out and, I think, came to seconds later.

Just like in the cartoons, green stars fizzed and swirled around in my head; warm blood ran down my face.

My head was gashed. My shoulder was dislocated. My collarbone detached. My pride bruised.

Falling doesn’t hurt. Hitting the ground does.

Failing is like falling.

The pain of failure is more imagined than real. Once you realise this you build failure into your process.

Fail quickly, fail quietly, repeat.

It’s part of doing things you never thought you could do.

and yes, sometimes you hit the ground. But you dust yourself off and start again.

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If we haven’t met yet…

I never considered myself good at change until I went from

-free-range kid to army sniper

-home movies to National Geographic cameraman

-fumbling card tricks to a professional magician

-never swinging a hammer to building a home

-high school dropout to published author

-business illiterate to building & selling a business

-stutterer to motivational speaker

Turns out I know how to change, I know how to make it simple, and I know how to stand on stage & make it fun so others want to do it too.

#change  #changeability #motivationalspeaker