Fear of Failure Plus

In This Bloutcher

• Fear of Failure
• New versus Knew
• Updates
• Speaking of Aging, or Evolution of a Self Portrait
  

Fear of Failure

I recently heard an interview with Tavis Smiley, the radio host and commentator. He was speaking about his new book Failing Up. During the interview he acknowledged that for most of his adult life he never admitted failure, but at a certain point he realized that by hiding his failures he was leaving out a critical part of his life and how those failures led to his growth as a human being and a professional.

The interview brought home to me the unintended consequences of our culture's worship of success as an ideal and how it breeds not only a fear of failure at the personal level but at the institutional and cultural levels as well. And where there is a fear of failure there is less willingness to take risks. And where there is less willingness to take risks there is less preparation for collaboration. And where there is less preparation for collaboration there is less creativity and innovation.

We are at a time when creativity and innovation need to act as premium difference makers in our lives so we cannot afford to promote a set of values and behaviors that unintentionally undermine these dynamic qualities.

The answer is not to give up on celebrating our successes, but rather to understand that our successes are built on our failures, our mistakes, our willingness to take risks, and how we respond the mistakes. Success and failure are the ying and yang of personal growth and societal innovation. I believe that part of the response needs to be our own ability to model failure successfully. That begins with acknowledging our personal failings and making that part of our conversation.

New Versus Knew

New cannot come from knew. New can only come from unknewn. From exploration, risk, discomfort. New comes from outside the boundaries of what we knew. If it was knewn then it is not new. It's a repeat of already knewn. We need to let go of knew in order to arrive at new. When knew repeats itself it's old. Riddle: Can new come from knew? Only wenk it embraces the unknewn!

Updates

• I am hard at work with co-author Kathy Jordan and nationally recognized life coach Donna Krone on Coaching for Life Change Artists, a highly interactive online training program for coaches and others who would like to develop their creative skills and integrate them into their practice and life. The program will be chock full of tools, techniques and ideas on how to unlock your creative powers and make a difference in your life and the lives of others. We are aiming to pilot the program this summer and release it this fall. Please let me know if you wish to be on the mailing list for alerts on when the program will be ready. Also, please let me know of others you think might be interested in such a program.
  
• I will be heading to France for five weeks beginning July 27th. If anyone will be in Paris during that time, give me a holler.
  
• The International Positive Aging Conference is set for December 7-9 in Los Angeles. If you would like to submit a proposal to present click here.

Speaking of Aging

I will be turning 69 this month. I recently lined up four self portraits I have done over the past 10 years--since I first took up painting. I was curious about how I have changed and how I represented those changes. What do you see? And if you were to create a self portrait today, how might it be different from the one you would have created 10 years ago?