Fail First to Succeed

As 2014 is coming to a close, I can put a check mark next to “get your site up”.  Years of dreaming, planning, talking about it, trying it in bits…   Now I have a place to let you know my thoughts, to give you tips in training, and to help you achieve your next “health & fitness” goals.

Over the last 11 years – as a volunteer instructor at the YMCA – I have observed all of my participants reaching to success in their physical abilities.  The definition of success varied but they did share one thing in common: none of them let the fear of failure hold them back.  Each and every of my participants is an inspiration to me and that’s why I wanted my first blog entry and the last words of 2014 to be dedicated to their successes through defeating their own fears of failure.

Have you ever run away from something so that you wouldn’t face failure?  I know I have.  However, my willingness to reach success on what I was running away from helped me face that fear.  At the end of the day, success is there to stay where as the fear just comes and goes.

It was my ego that drove my fear of failure.  I moved to San Francisco chasing my dream of windsurfing under the Golden Gate Bridge.  When I first moved out here, I had already been windsurfing for over 15 years and I had already established a certain level of confidence in my expertise on the sport.  When my husband introduced me to freestyle windsurfing, which involves all sorts of tricky moves, my first reaction was “no”.  Mostly because I didn’t want to feel like I was failing each time when I fell in the water.  However, we made a rule: “if you don’t fall into the water, you are not trying hard”.  That rule still goes and just last summer I won my first Freestyle Windsurfing Competition.

So now, here is my challenge to you on the verge of a new year…  Can you pick one goal that potentially pushes you to failure prior to success?  You don’t need to start very big.  You can simply pick yourself a simple fitness goal - being able to do x amount of pull-ups (correct form, slow speed, not assisted).  Don’t let that pull-up bar intimidate you and let me know if you need my help!  I will be there every step of the way, helping you succeed and giving you a HUGE HIGH FIVE at the end!