Remember the Road Runner cartoons? You have Wile E Coyote who is always chasing the Road Runner and coming up with the most insane ideas to try and catch him, usually using things mail-ordered from Acme.
From dropping boulders onto the Road Runner to strapping himself to a giant Acme slingshot. We all know he’s going to fail in the most comedic ways but it doesn’t stop him from trying again…. and again…. and again.
This is a lesson we can all learn and apply it to our lives and well as our businesses.
Do you see the coyote taking his mistakes personally, breaking out the ice cream, chocolate and wine, then sitting in front of the TV feeling sorry for himself? Of course not!
So what does he do? He dusts himself off and tried again.
How do you deal with failures? Do you grab the Ben and Jerrys? Or do you say screw that and keep going?
We can’t avoid failures and obstacles but we can change how we deal with things.
When I was training in archery to compete at a national level, I had SO many failures from missing targets completely and losing arrows to hitting things I shouldn’t to falling down (and getting stuck) in mud on a tournament to shooting in Wales with the heavy rain dripping off my nose.
Did I give up? Fuck no! I figured out what went wrong, dusted myself off (or dried myself off in some cases) and kept going no matter what. That how I became British Champion.
And you know what else? I did it with a smile on my face! In fact, I was laughing my ass off most of the time! Sliding down a mudding hillside on an archery tournament, not worrying about myself but holding my bow in the air and when eventually came to a stop, pissing myself laughing and saying “It’s ok, my bow’s ok”… was funny!
You HAVE to enjoy what you’re doing, otherwise, why are you doing it?
