Category: Bucking the Trend

Bucking the Trend: 5 Ways to Use Failure as Fuel for Your Success!

Posted on by Heath Hunsaker

What’s one word that rips at the heart of any human being? One word that stops us dead in our tracks. One word we allow all to often to identify who we are.failure

That word…FAILURE! We allow our failures, real or perceived, to stall and even stop our progress. We allow failure to define who we are and what we’ve done and even what we can do. But what if we were to look at failure in a different light? Instead of failures holding us back, why not use them as fuel to propel us to new and greater success!

Here are 5 ways to use Failure as Fuel!

1. Take Responsibility!
This may sound a bit off, but think about it. If you are always blaming someone or something else for your failures, then you have absolutely no control to change it! By accepting responsibility of you failures, you are telling yourself and the world to watch out! You are going to find out why you received the results you did and determine what you need to do in order to generate the results you desire!

2. Use failures to uncover additional opportunities!
Once you have accepted responsibility it will free your mind to look at how these failures have opened up new opportunities. Opportunities to look for different solutions in order to to achieve your desired outcomes. Don’t allow failure to limit yourself to only your way of thinking. Use failures as a catalyst to grow and expand your mind and knowledge.

3. See failures as steps in the journey to success!
Failure isn’t the end. In fact the only way you can fail is if you quit! See your failures as building blocks to greater and bigger successes for the future. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and anything worth working for won’t be either. Use failures as a new launch pad for the next leg of your success journey.

4. Use failures as motivation to drive harder to your end goal.
Just as we view failure as one step in the success journey, use failure to motivate you to drive harder towards your end goal. Failure can be used as either a propellant or a deterrent. How you respond to failure will determine the rate at which you push towards success. Great inventors such as Thomas Edison used failure as fuel to create the light bulb.  He’s been quoted as saying:

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

5. Use failures as a time for honest reflection
Failures often hit you like a sucker punch in the gut. They cause you to lose your breath and take a step back. Use this time as a reflection period and have an honest discussion with yourself. Reflect on what has happened, what brought you to this point and what can you do to achieve the desired results.

Failure is inevitable. How we respond to failure is 100% up to us. Take responsibility and use failure as fuel to lead you on to success!

How have you used failures in the past as fuel for success? Leave a reply in the comment section below.

Bucking the Trend: Perfection Isn’t Perfect!

Posted on by Heath Hunsaker

Welcome to the second installment of “Bucking the Trend”. Today we talk Perfection…and how Perfection Isn’t Perfect. In fact, if we focus too much on perfection, we will most likely never accomplish all that we are capable of.

I’d love to read your comments in the comments section below.

Bucking the Trend – Part 2: Perfection Isn’t Perfect!

“I’ve almost got it perfect.”
“Just a little bit more, then it’ll be perfect and ready to post.”
“If it’s not perfect, I’m not going to share it.”

These are a few thoughts and phrases that will kill the momentum of any artist, writer, entrepreneur or business person. Striving for perfection isn’t a bad thing, but when we make perfection our sole focus we lose sight of our progress and our goals.

Entrepreneurs (myself included) struggle with this concept all the time. We want to make sure we have the perfect blog post, product or service. Our marketing has to be spot on or we believe we’ll fail miserably! Our website has to be absolutely perfect or no one will ever click. The truth is, if we never put it out there, never publish our article, never communicate our plan, NOTHING WILL EVER HAPPEN!

So how can make sure that we don’t let perfection become our first and last insurmountable mountain? Here are four steps you can take to overcome the perfection bug and start your journey to success!

1. Decide on where you want to end up, but don’t focus on the how, yet!
Decisions, decisions, decisions. We all have to make them but some struggle more than others. The key here is to decide where you want to end up. Don’t worry on how you’ll get there, decide. My kids are studying the 7 Habits and one of the habits is, “Start with the end in mind.” If you don’t know where you want to go you’ll never end up there. Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

2. Document your first step…(Notice it’s just one step, not all!)
Now that you know where you’re headed write down the first step. Just like before you don’t need to know all the steps, just the first one. Too many times we as humans want to make sure we know everything, have everything planned out and all situations accounted for. This is impossible! If everyone knew everything, we would have already arrived at out destination. What’s your first step?

3. ACT!
Now is when the rubber meets the road. You know where you’re going and you know what the first step is. DO IT! Don’t become a victim of analysis paralysis! This is often the straw that breaks the camel’s back. We’re okay with deciding where we’re going and even pretty okay with the first step. It’s that first step that’s a killer, or so we believe. Having courage to take that step is often what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. Which camp do you want to be in?

4. Realize that progress is better than perfection
Finally, we need to realize that progress is better than perfection. We may think that we want perfection, but what would happen if we obtained it? Would we be satisfied? If not, then was it really perfect to begin with? Ultimately, it’s the progression towards perfection that drives us, not perfection itself. 

Don’t let the perfection bug paralyze you from action. Become a person of action and just get moving!

Bucking the Trend: Why “Trying” Doesn’t Matter

Posted on by Heath Hunsaker

This is the first of a three part series entitled, “Bucking the Trend”. The goal is to explore three different topics that come up when one is trying to better themselves and how to view them from a different perspective. Can “Bucking the Trend” be a catalyst to catapult you to new levels? Read on and find out.

I’d love to read your comments in the comments section below.

Bucking the Trend – Part 1: Why “Trying” Doesn’t Matter

How many times were you told as a kid to just “Try It”? Now how many times as an adult do you say, “I’ll give it a try”? Probably more than you think! Conventional wisdom tells us that “trying” things is how we learn or it’s how we determine if something will work or if we will like something. Below are 3 reasons for why “trying” is overrated and 3 ways to Buck the Trend!

3 Reasons why “Trying” is overrated:

1. Trying is passive
The word “trying” may imply action, but in reality it’s passive. If I were to ask you to pick up a ball and your response is “I’ll try” and you bend down to pick it up…you didn’t try (passive) to pick it up, you either “did” (action) or “didn’t” (action). Trying requires no effort or action, it is merely an empty word.

2. Trying encourages failure
When we say, “I’ll try” it allows failure to be okay. Failure in and of itself isn’t bad. In fact we many times learn more in our failures that in our successes. But when we try we not only leave the door open for failure, we often don’t give 100%.

3. Trying is a scapegoat
Not only does “trying” encourage failure, “trying” also acts as a scapegoat. We feel that if we try something and it doesn’t work out then no harm done. We will accept failure and tell ourselves failure is okay, because we were just “trying”.

3 Ways to Buck the Trying Trend

1. Extinguish “try” from your vocabulary 
Extinguish means to put out or bring to an end. The words we choose feed our actions. By effectively extinguishing “try” from our vocabulary, we are removing the inaction of “trying” and the acceptance of failure.

2. Make a decision and a plan
This embodies action. By making a decision and a plan we are no longer inactive but active. This kicks “trying” to the curb!

3. Commit to the plan and outcome(s)
“Trying” often leads to a half-hearted attempt. By committing to the plan and to the outcomes, we stand a greater chance of success. Committing requires action and accountability.

The difference between success and failure is often the mindset we enter with. Instead of entering with the mindset of “trying”, enter with the mindset of “DOING”!