I’m in the middle of a class that’s so good! It’s helping me significantly in my business. One lesson that I’m quickly learning is failing in public.

It’s uncomfortable and just like a little one learning to walk, I need to pick myself and start again. I may be two feet back from where I was, and yet I’ll be further along in the long run.

One of my favorite videos that recently showed up for me is this.

It’s the perfect metaphor for failing, and even failing in public. The bumps give us momentum to keep going forward. We all want life to be smooth sailing, and yet the bumps help us grow and evolve. And notice the smooth ramp goes slower.

Countless scientists and inventors failed only to get back up and to tweak one thing to make their next iteration better.

We’re taught that we need to be good students and an A is expected. For the overachievers among us, failing can feel unacceptable. So we only learn that perfection is preferred and failing or making mistakes is bad.

Yet, do we even learn anything beyond getting the good grade? Do we learn from our mistakes? Do we grow?

If we’ve always expected perfection, when we meet an obstacle, we don’t know how to deal with it, so we push and beat ourselves up.

The next time you’re at the park or the woods, I invite you to notice how the trees and plants grow. When they encounter and obstacle they don’t hit it and give up, they find a way to grow around it. Sometimes they use that obstacle as support.

The next time you encounter failure or an obstacle, slow down and see if you can grow around it. This mistake or failure or obstacle is an opportunity for growth. And it may be the perfect time to ask for support.

And in the meantime, you can laugh along with me at my stumbles because I’m learning. I’m learning how to have my own business and figure things out. And your support adds a touch of sweetness to the failure.