Learning, Trying, Failing, Winning

I'm a curious person. I like to try and break new things, start new challenges and stop others, and i have many goals I want to achieve.

 

Learning, trying, failing and winning are the four steps that characterize everything I do in life, and I've spent quite a few time trying to understand this process because I wanted to maximize my experience.

 

We often summarize this process with the word learning, which is incorrect. When you teach children to ride a bike, they don't limit to listening your advices, but rather they try (often ignoring what you previously said) and fail until one day they can ride it like a pro.

 

So children know very well how to really learn new things, but somehow some of them will forgot it at some age and if they don't achieve something quickly, they think there's something wrong with them. That's how sometimes we end up into an unfulfilling job or awful situation.

 

Of course, as soon as we recognize again how this process works, we can take advantage of it to realize our goals.

 

Whatever you want to do, you are probably going through all these steps too, so it's worth taking a closer look at each of them.

 

Learning

 

The first step in the process is learning. Learning in this context means acquiring information from a particular source. Of course we say that we learn from every situation in life, but I'm really referring to learning from books or other similar sources.

 

Books, blogs, talks, are all great ways to gain information. In fact they are so great that we spend a great amount of time in time without recognizing it. Think about it, as you are reading this post now, and you are acquiring new knowledge. Unfortunately, as you'll learn later, learning per se is not a big deal unless you take action.

 

Trying

 

The second step is to try to do what you've just learnt. For example if you've read that in order to publicize your website or product you have to connect with three new people every day, you try to do it and see what happens. While this example was purely invented, I can't recommend enough to try and validate what you read or hear that interests you.

 

Most times just taking this step means succeding, and it's definitely the step where you want to spend most of your energies.

 

Failing

 

If what you've tried didn't work the way you expected, we use to say that you failed. Now, failure is not an emotion you like to achieve often, right? Wrong. Failure is the most exciting thing and you should like it! Let me explain.

 

Failure is not the opposite part of success, but its integrant part. When you fall from a bike the first time you try to ride it, you know that you have to try again until you're able to do it right.

 

In the same way, when something doesn't work the way you expected, consider it a valuable lesson and try something else. Sooner or later you'll do it right. Edison failed thousands of times before making a lightbulb.

 

Every successful people know how important it is to fail, and that is ok to fail to succeed. Just changing the meaning of this world is a big win per se.

 

Winning

 

The last step is, of course, completing the task, or realizing your dream. At this point you could either do the process again, and this time it will be easier, or you could enjoy your result and move to something else. There's no correct answer as it depends from what you were trying to do. For example if you've just learnt how to swim, it's a good idea to continue to do it, and maybe improve.

 

Putting it all together

 

What does it mean all of this in practice? It means that you can reach any goal if you are willing to take the time to go trough the whole process.

 

One step every day and you'll get there, you just have to do it.

 

BIO: Oscar Del Ben writes about personal development and productivity at

 

www.FreeStyleMind.com.  

 

You can visit his website or subscribe to the