I aspire to my daughter’s level of intensity. She’s Intensity in Ten Cities. She’s fierce.
Today’s episode launches the mini-series The School of Maddox, where I’ll be sharing the specific lessons this fiery, fierce, fearless redhead is teaching me, along with practical ways I’m applying the lessons.
As a fitting follow up to last week’s episode on Your Next Level Fear (BEHIND the fear of failure), today’s episode will teach you how to Fail like Maddox.
But first, a visual.
Maddox turned what would have been a sledding fail into her own launchpad to independent, speedy sledding. She no longer relies on the gentle shove of a parent to give her enough momentum to reach top speeds. She capitalized on a near-failure and turned it into snowbound success. You’ll need to listen for all the hilarity behind this all-time pic.
The lesson for us as adults (assuming you’re an adult reading/listening to this podcast)?
1. Look for the leap
When things start to go off the rails, you can throw up your hands and let all the shit hit the proverbial fan OR you can fail like Maddox and recalculate.
2. ACT FAST
If Maddox had hesitated, she would have missed her opportunity or fallen on her face. She boldly leeped and experienced the exhilaration. We can do the same. When we see the path forward, we all could afford to take swift and decisive action. Even a day’s worth of ruminating might be the difference between winning and losing.
3. DON’T WORRY ABOUT WHO IS WATCHING
For all I know, Maddox MEANT to do what she did. It looked like a failure at first, and if I had said something aloud perhaps it would have been. Thankfully I kept my mouth shut, and Maddox taught me an important lesson. From the outside perspective, you might always have meant to do things the way you did. So stop worrying what everybody outside of the situation is thinking.
The best part? These three lessons only really work together. You can’t have one without the others, or you could end up eating a snowdrift sandwich.
Let me hear from: what’s an area in your life where you could afford to fail like Maddox? Health? Finances? A specific project?
Turn your failure into a launchpad for your success, and slide into the rest of 2020 like a boss toddler.