There are countless stories of inventors, scientists and creators who did not succeed on their “first try.” Edison credits his 10,000 failures that didn’t work that ultimately led him to invent the light bulb. Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken did not achieve success until he was a senior citizen. The story goes that the Colonel asked 100 people to invest in his new chicken restaurant that we now know as KFC. Although the saying goes, “if at first you don’t succeed – try, try again” – it really should say try and try it again but in a new and different way.
This week as you embark on a path towards achieving your goal, you should also embrace the idea that things will not go as planned – and that’s ok. You will not be successful in every aspect of every project, venture or job. However, you can always successfully move beyond “failure” by approaching the same situation in a new way. Everything that we do has steps and/or a process. Find new ways to approach something when you are doing it a second or third time. Remember doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. So whenever you are trying something over, make sure you make at least one fundamental change to your process.
