My latest Coaching Power Tool: Success vs Failure is ready for use by coaches or people interested in self-coaching! It can be downloaded as a pdf via the University’s Kimmel Education and Research Center’s Digital Commons site (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/kimmelfacpub/15/). To give you a little glimpse of this power tool, I have included a snippet below:
Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub;
It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.
We make a vessel from a lump of clay;
It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.
We make doors and windows for a room;
But it is these empty spaces that make the room livable.
Thus, while the tangible has advantages,
It is the intangible that makes it useful.
Lao Tzu
Tao Teh Ching (p. 23)
Part of personal leadership and innovation is self-discovery, which requires introspection and the ability to see the unseen. As the reading from Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching illustrates, sometimes it is necessary to consider a different perspective. We have to shift our thinking to see the importance of all parts of a wheel, cart, vessel or a room. Sometimes, it is the unobvious that may be the most important. It is important for us to challenge our thinking and traditional thought to redefine success, failure and our ability to take risks.
For example, many of us may marvel at the colors of a beautiful vase while it is the empty space on the inside that provides functionality. We must further consider that the outside and inside are both required give the vase value and purpose. Sometimes it is what we do not immediately see or experience that gives life value and purpose. We must search for purpose and meaning in order to begin to understand how we perceive success and failure. Napoleon Hill’s research (p. 31), demonstrates the relationship between accomplishment and purpose:
“Purpose is the touchstone of any accomplishment, large or small. A strong man can be defeated by a child who has a purpose. Shift your habits of thinking about the significance of your task and you can often accomplish the seemingly impossible.”
Napoleon Hill,
Think & Grow Rich Action Pack(p. 31)
Increasing our awareness of success and failure requires us to explore our perception of both. One of the first steps in the process of personal innovation is discovering and defining success and failure from a holistic perspective on your own terms.
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