Fail Fast, Fail Often

That’s an awesome exercise.

Your great-uncle (who you barely knew) passed away. Surprisingly, you’re asked to attend the reading of the will. Even more surprisingly, you’ve inherited $100 million.

With one catch.

You need to wear a fun-meter and register at least one “7” a day for the year or you lose the cash.

Do you accept the opportunity?

Good choice!

Alright. Time to get to work. What action would you take on the first day?

Let’s live life like it really matters.

P.S. That’s from the first chapter in which John and Ryan walk us through the compelling research on the power of creating positive moments in our lives. In other words, having fun, experiencing joy, enthusiasm and engagement.

Much of the research they reference is on Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden-and-build” theories of positivity. As it turns out, the last Note we created was on Barbara’s great book Love 2.0.

Here’s an exercise guaranteed to get you over that “7” threshold every day you practice it (it’s my new favorite game): “Recall how energizing and rewarding it can be to really connect with somebody, sharing a flow of thoughts and feelings with ease. As your day unfolds, seek out at least three opportunities to connect with others like this, with warmth, respect, and goodwill. Opportunities may spring up at home, at work, in your neighborhood, or out in your community. Wherever you are, open toward others, freely offering your attention, creating a sense of safety, through eye contact, conversation, or, when appropriate, touch. Share your own lighthearted thoughts and feelings, and stay present as the other person shares theirs. Afterward, lightly reflect on whether that interchange led you to feel the oneness of positivity resonance, even to a small degree. Creating the intention to seek out and create more micro-moments of loving connection can be another tool for elevating your health and well-being.”

And, in this case, it will also get you over that “7” on your fun-meter. Let’s do this! :)

First, that story they’re referring to is the “50 pounds = A” gem from Art and Fear. (Check out the Micro Class here.)

Here’s how David Bayles and Ted Orland put it in their book: “The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on the quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the ‘quantity’ group: fifty pounds of pots rated an ‘A,’ forty pounds a ‘B,’ and so on. Those being graded on ‘quality,’ however, needed to produce only one pot—albeit a perfect one—to get an ‘A.’ Well, came grading and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the ‘quantity’ group was busily churning out piles of work—and learning from their mistakes—the ‘quality’ group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

50 lbs. It’s only by DOING—and being willing to make mistakes—that we learn and get better!

That’s part 1. Part 2. Let’s take a moment and answer those questions.

When was the last time you did something you were really proud of? (Got it?)

How did you feel in the time before you reached this accomplishment? Was it easy or challenging? Make any mistakes as you stretched your abilities?

Let’s say “Bring it on!” and remember: “Feeling afraid or unprepared is a sign of being in the space for optimal growth.”

Here’s a way to embrace the process of failing fast and failing often:

That formula at the end is genius. More on that in a moment.

First, Chris Rock. Howard Schultz. Ed Catmull.

Chris Rock tries out *thousands* of hastily conceived jokes in small comedy shops as he crafts what will become his big show. (Note: He fails A LOT.)

Howard Schultz’s original version of Starbucks leaned a little too heavily on its Italian inspiration—featuring baristas wearing bow ties, menus that were mostly in Italian and opera music that played nonstop in the background. Oh, there were also no chairs. (Note: The Starbucks we know of today went through a TON of experiments, adjustments and revisions.)

Ed Catmull, the cofounder and President of Pixar has a great line. He says that Pixar’s movies go from “suck” to “non-suck.” (Hah.) You know how many storyboards Wall-E had? 98,173. (That’s a lot of suck that wound up non-suck.)

Eminent innovators. Master failers.

Now to the formula. Knowing that the most successful among us are the most willing to fail fast and fail often in pursuit of mastery, let’s get clear on what YOU need to fail at.

—> What do you want to succeed at? ________________.

—> What must you first be willing to be bad at? _____________.

Fantastic. Get on that.

For me? My new Energy hobby: I want to be good at running Spartan Races. Seeing that I’ve never done one, I am currently far from good. A total beginner. I am willing to be bad at running (in general and specifically up and down hills), and, well, pretty much all the obstacles.

I’ve been imagining myself as a white belt aspiring to become a black belt—recognizing the many years it will take to attain mastery. With that beginner’s mind, I don’t need to pretend to be an expert and it’s been fun to ask people for help/ideas/etc. And, my current measure of how I’m doing is whether or not I’m showing up for my daily training. Makes it all much more fun.

Back to you. I want to succeed at ________. Therefore, I’m excited to be bad at ________.

That’s from the chapter called “Think Big, Act Small.”

Got big goals? Wonderful.

Feeling a little (or a lot) overwhelmed by those big goals? No problem. Just go small. Super small. And take ACTION!

In The Way of the SEAL, Mark Divine tells us that when things get most challenging we need to “simplify the battlefield.” We need to know our mission and figure out the next “microgoal” that will take us in that direction.

Then there’s Peter Sims and his great book Little Bets. He tells us we need to “smallify” our goals and create small wins.

Here’s how he puts it: “As we begin to make use of these methods to develop new ideas, strategies, and projects, they combine to facilitate what organizational psychologist Karl Weick refers to as small wins. Weick defines a small win as ‘a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance.’ They are small successes that emerge out of our ongoing development process, and it’s important to be watching closely for them. …

In the acclaimed paper in which Weick described small wins, published in the January 1984 issue of American Psychologist, he used the example of how helpful it is for alcoholics to focus on remaining sober one day at a time, or even one hour at a time. Stringing together successive days of sobriety helps them to see the rewards of abstinence and makes it more achievable in their minds. Elaborating on the benefits of small wins, Weick writes, ‘Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favor another small win.’”

Then there’s Jason Selk’s Relentless Solution Focus. (Emphasis on RELENTLESS.) When we’re feeling overwhelmed, we are, by definition, focusing on the problems. Jason tells us to give ourselves 60 seconds to focus on the problem then figure out what TINY thing we can do to take a step forward.

Then there’s the next telephone pole Spartan Up! style. Don’t stress yourself out with the iceberg of pain regarding the long run you’re on/huge project you’re working on. Just get to the next telephone pole.

… Plus all the other metaphors we use. :)

So, what is the next step you can take? What’s your next microgoal?

Get clear. Take action on it IMMEDIATELY.

Repeat daily.

Let’s get good at focusing on that next baby step as we have fun creating small wins!

P.S. Ryan and John tell us that John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize-winning author of Grapes of Wrath, once said: “When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. Then, gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate.”

<— That’s a close approximation to how I feel when I focus on creating 1,000 Notes. Although I feel less of a sick sense of failure and more of a “Really? I’m going to spend how long doing that? etc. etc.” Much better to focus on the next Note. +1. +1. +1. +1. I can do that! And, in fact, disciplining myself to get really good at doing that is one of my big “Why”s for committing to the 1,000. It’s all good gritty mental training.

How about you? Got any metaphorical 500-page novels you’re working on? One page at a time!

In The Myths of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky talks about how we have poor “affective forecasting” abilities. In other words, we’re not very good at predicting how we’ll feel in the future. As it turns out (and as you probably know), at the end of their lives people rarely regret the things they did. They regret the things they DID NOT do.

Sonja provides an interesting look at WHY that’s the case. Short story: 1. We’re super resilient—way stronger than we think. 2. Our brains are very good at healthily rationalizing results of things we’ve done; but things we never pursued provide infinite avenues for contemplating possibilities. Enter: Regret.

As Mark Twain said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Which leads us to the final words of the book: “It is natural to feel uncertain, unmotivated, or fearful when facing new challenges. But negative feelings shouldn’t stop you. The best way to gain confidence and improve your mood is to take action, even though you’re not feeling up to it. The next time you find yourself hesitating due to your negative mood, get going anyway. Go for a run even though you feel lethargic; invite a colleague to lunch even though you feel shy; volunteer for a project even though you doubt your abilities; or enroll in a challenging course even though you feel unprepared.

Now it’s time for you to get out there and fail as quickly as you possibly can. And then fail again.”

Throw off your bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.