Thomas Edison is given as an example of persistence, going through 6000 filaments before the lightbulb worked. As well as Ulysses S. Grant’s victory in Vicksburg had only come as a result of dozens of failed attempts before finding the successful one.
Q: Considering those examples, what value can we glean from Ryan Holiday’s quote “Genius often really is just persistence in disguise”?
Consider the following statements regarding failure:
“Failure can become the source of breakthroughs”
“Anticipated, temporary failure hurts LESS than catastrophic permanent failure”
“Failure is the best school, but tuition ain’t free, be glad to pay the cost”
“Only way to not benefit from failure is to not learn from it.”
“Failure is the world (universe) giving you feedback, its revelation”
“Failure shows us the way, by showing us what isn’t the way”
Q: What is your relationship with failure like? When has failure turned out to work out for you in the long run?
Consider Amelia Earhart’s example of taking the “offensive offer” initially that eventually led her to build momentum toward landing a permanent place in the history books.
Q: What might have happened had she waited for a better offer? What are other ways people fail to get moving by “holding out” for the best opportunity?
Challenge: How you do anything is how you do everything
Infuse intention into 3 everyday routine things. Example:
Instead of just making your bed; make your bed as a metaphor for putting your life into order
Instead of just brushing your teeth, brush your teeth while think about how you should always speak the truth
Instead of just driving to work, think about how you can use that same driving time to listen to a podcast or uplifting music