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Tiny Leaps, Big Changes

589 - Why Trying (and Failing) Matters

Tiny Leaps, Big Changes

Gregg Clunis

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.3920 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2020

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we look at why trying something once and subsequently failing at it matters so much for finding success.

The Problem

What if I told you that there is a real reason why you are struggling to achieve your goals? Like a real, solid reason. Not some wishy washy excuse?

Well there is. It may not be the only reason, and it certainly isn’t some secret technique that you need to pay me money to learn. But there is a real reason.

The reason is simple, we don’t fully understand the process of setting goals and working towards them.

Digging Deeper

For years the self-help industry has touted the value of setting goals. There have been hundreds of books, podcasts, youtube videos, and speeches dedicated to the topic. We’ve created frameworks and processes and systems designed to make goal-setting easier or more straightforward.

I’ve been a part of this too. Because for a long time I bought into the idea that the biggest problem in goal-setting was just that the systems were broken. I thought that if we could just improve the process for people then more people would accomplish there goals.

That might still be true, but improving the system does nothing if it doesn’t consider the reality of the situation that the system deals with.

The Solution

So here’s my advice. Try things. Try them once. 

Use that initial motivation to fuel immediate action and take it. Fail at it. Let yourself go through the full process. 

Doing this will allow you to get an idea of the work involved and what kind of motivation is required to sustain yourself. It will also help you understand whether or not this is a goal worth trying again. 

The good news is that if you do decide to try again you’ll be approaching it with a much more balanced understanding of the effort required for that outcome. This should help reduce that burnout and keep you running much longer.

Instagram:

http://instagram.com/tinyleaps

Resources:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuronarrative/202003/why-we-often-fail-reach-our-goals

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432819313889

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In this episode we look at why trying something once and subsequently failing at it

0:06.7

matters so much for finding success. Get excited because this is tiny leaps.

0:15.0

Big change. Welcome to another episode of Tiny Leaps, Big Changes, where I share simple strategies you can use to get more out of your life.

0:41.0

My name is Greg Klunis and in this episode I want to look at

0:46.5

some of the real reasons behind why accomplishing the goals we set is so dang hard and it isn't just about you it isn't just

0:58.2

about your effort or laziness or anything like that so we're going to dive into that

1:02.2

and we're going to look at why trying something

1:05.0

once and failing at it is so incredibly important. This is why I constantly say success requires

1:11.9

sacrifice and that failure is a requirement for success.

1:16.6

We have to go through that process.

1:18.4

It's not a question of, oh, we shouldn't accept failure or any of the other nonsense that is so prevalent in the

1:25.8

self-help industry.

1:27.8

So what if I told you that there is a real reason why you are struggling to achieve your goals like a real solid reason

1:36.8

not some wishy-washy excuse well there is and it may not be the only reason,

1:43.1

and it certainly isn't some secret technique

1:45.4

that you need to pay me money to learn,

1:47.0

but there is a real reason,

1:49.6

and that reason is actually very simple. We don't fully understand the process of setting

1:55.8

goals and working towards them. And when I say we, I mean we as individuals,

2:00.1

scientists, psychologists, neurologists, they're starting to learn a lot of this stuff.

2:05.2

They're starting to do more research in this and that information is sort of trickling down

2:10.2

to us, but a little bit of what's coming out is starting to show that actually the way

...

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