1458: F is for Fail by Bradley Charbonneau of Pass The Sour Cream on Personal Development

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Work Daily. F is for Fail by Bradley Charbonneau of PassTheSourCream.com.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: You need to fail to learn. Yes, of course you can learn without failing but to really ingrain it in your mind, in your memory, in your system, you need to fail.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: You need to see what went wrong, what didn't work so well, and then think about what you can do better.

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: By the way, slackers, this doesn't mean you will learn by failing and quitting. It means failing and then trying again until you succeed.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Your eventual success will be all the sweeter, not to mention the better when you succeed after you fail.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I was at my son's karate practice the other day, and I was talking with another dad about the upcoming tournament.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I really hope my son gets his butt kicked, the other father said. I wasn't sure quite what to say to that, so in good form I said nothing. The other father continued.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: You see, he's so cocky, he thinks he's so good, he thinks it's also easy. He needs to learn that to get better, he needs to lose once in a while.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Then when he wins, he'll be even better. They'll also appreciate the win more.

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, didn't know dad thought so thoroughly about Little Johnny's karate tournament, but good on you mate.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: F is for fall. I don't fall enough when skiing. I'm a relatively new skier just the past five years since we started with the kids.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a solid blue run skier, I can handle a not too locally black, but I'm careful and I probably won't terribly enjoy it.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not really pushing myself, I don't fall enough because I don't push myself very hard when skiing.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a fear of falling as much as it is a comfort with the status quo.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm okay with being a blue, I don't really need to get to black.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to do a few things better, but I'm not in a huge hurry. I'm cruising. I'm okay with it, but I'm not improving much.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I improve because we ski often, but gradually. At some point, I suppose Olympians, you taper off and your rate of improvement flatends.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not sure I'm at the level, okay, fine, I know I'm not at the level where I should be tapering off.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But who decides that? Let's get back to writing. With writing, you don't break bones.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: With writing, I can take more risks. What do I have to lose? If I'm writing on assignment, the editors can always say that it needs work.

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: That was the risk I took. The risk of failure. The failure being I need to work on it more.

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: If it were a book, the publisher could say that it needs work, that I need to change this or that or lots of this and tons of that.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: That could be considered failing. That would be okay. If I lost the book deal because of it, that would be failing.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But then I would have learned something, too. I do it their way if they're the ones writing the checks or I do it my way and then for myself when it comes to check writing.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's take one more example. I'm working on a product. I'm working on a WordPress class workshop tutorial site.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll have loads of help videos, documents, walkthroughs, how-to screencasts to walk even the most technophobic through using their WordPress site.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been wanting to do this for years, but I haven't done it. I'm not terribly sure why as there's only upside.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I have happier clients, my clients are more informed and powered and happier. When, when?

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So why haven't I done this? It's usually because I'm too busy with client work.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But I've managed to do quite a few other things even though I'm so busy with client work, so that's no excuse.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's at least in part because I'm afraid to fail. I want it to be perfect. I want it to be the best thing out there, but it needs to exist.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't improve on the second version when the first version doesn't exist. In fact, I need the first version to fail to improve on the second version.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Because if the first version is good enough, then I won't see the need to drastically improve it.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So you need to fail to learn. You need to fail to improve, but you need to create, produce, write, make, build.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: You need to do that before you can fail. If you don't begin, if you don't have something to improve on, something to fail with, then there's nowhere to go. Nothing to do.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Do, fail, learn, improve. You just listen to the post titled f is for fail by Bradley Sharbano of passtheShourCream.com.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn, and that sense of wonderment they have while doing it.

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[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And thanks to Bradley for letting us read his content, and I'm going to guess that you're curious like I am about the name pass the Sauercream. So let me read a passage about that.

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I had been in Asia just over two months, something like 10 weeks, or if you're counting in days, about 70 days. Of course, if you're counting meals, like I was, think about 210.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Add iodine purified water, a permanent layer of dust on my tongue, and let's just say I couldn't always hold down what I did eat.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Food was becoming my meaning, my passion, my existence. I dreamt up meals in my head, leafy salads, steak, anything without rice and noodles.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, rice and noodles are great, but try them for 70 days, 3 meals a day. Try anything for that long. I wanted food from home.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Besides, just before coming to Asia, I'd spent 6 months in Africa eating things that were beige, bland and beaten. Oh yes, Asian food had sounded exotic and adventurous, but at this point given a choice between a baked potato and the great wall of China, pass the Sauercream.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so there you have it, basically what he's getting out with that passage and the name of his site is that we all have choices and priorities. You ultimately get to choose what you want out of life.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So there are a bunch of articles and topics to check out on his site, come by pass the Sauercream.com for a lot more, and thank you again to Bradley for letting us share his work.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's going to do it for today. I thank you again for listening, and of course ask you to subscribe if you got a second. Hope you have a great start to your weekend, and I'll be back with you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.