Is Failing a Good Thing?
Jan 31 2022
💯Is Failing a Good Thing?
Merriam Webster defines failure as the “lack of success”. Our society has trained us to associate failure with weakness or incompetence, which is why it is no surprise that so many people have developed a fear of failure. It is exactly this kind of thinking that keeps so many people from experiencing greatness. What I have come to understand is that the fear of failure limits creativity, growth, and innovation. All of which are totally necessary to experience sustainable success. Anyone who is looking to expand their influence and capabilities will need to try new things. We will not always be able to do everything excellence. There is going to be trial and error. There are going to be things that we try that we realize we are not gifted for or maybe the general public just isn’t ready for it. No matter the reason, when we fail at something we oftentimes get upset with ourselves. We should challenge this thinking. We need to accept failure as a step towards growth. If you never fail at anything, it usually means that you are not stretching yourself into new arenas. True success comes to those that continue to try new things, take risks, and move beyond the status quo. If you have not failed at anything lately, then maybe you are just not trying hard enough.
🎥The Latest on my YouTube Channel
My YouTube journey this week consisted of 5 days in the ThinkMedia 1K Challenge. Over the course of these 5 days we had 7 interactive sessions designed to help new YouTubers with ideas to grow their channels. I will have a full review of this on my YouTube channel this week to discuss what I learned.
One of the techniques we learned is to do “How To” videos or tutorials. In an attempt to follow my plan and listen to the gurus I did my first “How to” video on a productivity app that I have been using over the past months. You can check out my Airtable tutorial: How to use Airtable for Beginners video here:
🏆What I am learning
🎬I continued to learn new skills in editing. New skills that I tested in this week’s video include highlighting the cursor, increasing the speed of the clip and I added some music. Check out the video above and tell me how I did.
🔗I continued my Blockchain certification course on Simplilearn, but I have to say I am a bit disappointed that I did not get as far as I thought I would. With the increased focus on the 1K Challenge stuff and getting my new productivity app set up (details below) I did not spend as much time as I wanted to. If you are interested in learning along with me, sign up for an account using my affiliate link here https://simpli-web.app.link/e/hwcdjHJhlm. You will get FOUR FREE Courses and you can connect with me and share notes.
📖What I am reading
I am still working on the review of Uncover Your Difference by Meera Kothand. Make sure you check on my website for the full review later this week: https://www.paulmilakeve.com/book-reviews.
I am still working through The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly. I found way more information than I initially remember. It is amazing to see how much our technology has advanced over the past couple of years. Things like Blockchain, The Metaverse, Web 3.0 were nowhere on our radar when I first read this book. I am going through this a bit deeper knowing that I have already seen the trend developing that would validate the theories in this book. For anyone who geeks out about “the future” this is going to be a good one to check out.
🛠️Project Updates
📒The battle of the Titans is over. As I mentioned last week, I was on a quest to decide on my notetaking/productivity app and the contest was between Notion and Evernote. This was a tough one. I poured hours of time into checking out both of these programs, signed up for accounts and played around with them for days. They both had many of the features that I was looking for but they each had some certain things that made them stand out. Ultimately, I made the decision to go with Notion. Congratulations Notion! You are my new app of choice. I will have a complete breakdown on why I chose Notion over Evernote in an upcoming video. (Spoiler Alert) It mostly came down to the personalization of Notion that brought it over the finish line, but it was tough. There were some things that I really liked about Evernote and hope Notion will adopt soon.
👍What I am loving
📺There is a great show I stumbled upon on Netflix. If you like gangster movies like my wife and I, then you should check out Bad Blood. It is about the Canadian mob scene, based on a true story of course. It is full of twist and turns that had us binging out all week to complete the 2 seasons.
🍿Popcorn. I have been enjoying this snack for a while and now I hooked my wife into it as well. It is a great low-calorie snack that helps cure the craving for salt without the calories of the usual things like potato chips and nachos. Now that she is on board, we are going through our supply twice as fast, so it is on the top of mind.
📊Random Insights
I have been on the Artificial Intelligence band wagon for some time, and we had an echo dot in our house for a couple of years. We mostly used it to listen to music and an occasional question or weather update. This past Christmas I purchased the Echo Show for my wife. She put it in the kitchen, and we found some great new uses for the technology. Since we both downloaded the app to our phones, we have found using it to create our shopping list as a life changing experiment. Gone are the days of texting items back and forth and trying to find random “need to buy” items on my to-do list. We simply ask Alexa to add an item to our list when we realize that we need it and we both have full access to the list anytime we are out on the town. This is one of those things that can help improve your life.