Fail Forward Faster

I will laugh at the world. And most of all, I will laugh at myself for man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. Never will I fall into this trap of the mind. For though I may be nature's greatest miracle am I not still a mere grain tossed about by the winds of time? Do I truly know whence I came or whither I am bound? Will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence? Why should I permit the petty happenings of today to disturb me? What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant in the river of centuries?

- The Greatest Salesmen in the World by Og Mandino

Good evening!

This evening we had a bunch of friends over and played a fun role playing game that we made up on the spot to help someone with online dating conversations.

The person we were helping had to go around the room and ask all of us out on a date, and our job was to throw different situations at him to help him practice what he would say in a real conversation.

This was surprisingly fun and productive. I was laughing my butt off for most of the night.

At one point, the friend we were helping started to get frustrated that he didn't seem to be saying the right things, until we pointed out that that was the entire point.

The goal was to fail forward faster.

Failing forward faster is a recognition that the road to success is paved in failure and that the fastest way to get to where you want to go is to be willing to fail.

The faster we fail, the faster we move forward. Each failure is an insight that will propel us further if we choose to take it.

We all know this. We've all been taught this on countless occassions.

And yet we sit and obsess over every little detail of all our plans, and often hold off on doing things because we aren't sure what the right thing to do is.

I know I am guilty of this often.

Not always. The farms motto so far could be "failing forward faster".

But even with the farm, there are things I delay doing because I want to get things perfect.

I take things too seriously. I allow my fear of failure to prevent me from engaging in the process.

Often times, I seem to get stuck on things while ironing out the final details. I'll get the planning 95% done, then agonize over the final 5%.

I worry that I may waste money, even though all the mistakes I've made amount to a very cheap education. I can't tell you how often I slow down progress because I'm debating if spending some trivial amount of money will be worth it.

(On the subject of buying things, the most frustrating part of this fear of wasting money is how often I forget that I can always just resell if it doesn't work out. Rarely do you lose 100% of an investment if you buy the wrong thing.)

Moving forward, I'm going to try to keep this principle in mind and do a better job of taking action sooner and learning from the mistakes that are inevitable anyway.

I will laugh at the world and enjoy each day.

If there is anything like this that you are waiting to take action on, I say go get started now.

Change your diet, open a business, plant something new on your farm, get your first bee hives, buy a puppy, sell your house, ask someone out on a date, ask for a raise, quit your job, retire, start doing stand up comedy, or book a vacation somewhere amazing.

If all these things sounded stupid to you, do that thing that this list made you think of.

Ask yourself, will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence? Why should I permit the petty happenings of today to disturb me? What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant in the river of centuries?

Take imperfect action and disrupt the status quo.

Life is good.