Easier said than done

It’s chic to say we want our employees to fail, that if they’re not failing, they’re not pushing the envelope enough.

Blah, blah, blah.

In our real world, when we fail spectacularly, we lose our jobs.

So, it’s refreshing to find a book that deals with the real stuff of failure, Rising Strong by Brené Brown.

“While vulnerability is the birthplace of many of the fulfilling experiences we long for – love, belonging, joy, creativity, and trust, to name a few – the process of regaining our emotional footing in the midst of struggle is where our courage is tested and our values are forged.”

“Rising strong after a fall is how we cultivate wholeheartedness in our lives; it’s the process that teaches us the most about who we are.”

“Embracing failure without acknowledging the real hurt and fear that it can cause, or the complex journey that underlies rising strong, is gold-plating grit.”

“To strip failure of its real emotional consequences is to scrub the concepts of grit and resilience of the very qualities that make them both so important – toughness, doggedness, and perseverance.”

Failure sucks.

But we all do it, so the key is dealing with it once it happens.

Self-confidence is built when we overcome failure and risk.

Hope of better times comes from enduring struggle and failure.

One sure thing: every one of us will be tested by failure at some point in our lives.

Rising Strong is worth a read this summer.