On Saturday it all came to an end. The Florida Gators lost the SEC Championship game to the Crimson Tide. The Gators 22 consecutive game winning streak, which was the longest in the country, came to an end as well. Now, I am going to be the first to tell you that I hate to lose. I am a very bad loser and typically take it really hard, however, this time was different. I am not sure why, maybe it is my age, maybe it is that after losing a father and brother you realize there is more to life, or maybe it is the fact that at some point you realize everyone is going to lose and losing can provide valuable insight. let me tell you if you are not failing then you are not pushing hard enough. You are probably sitting in a comfort zone. I remember when I first started my career in the fitness industry and everything came pretty easy. My boss, who owned the gym, handed me clients without me having to drum up my own business. However, it wasn’t until I moved to Dallas and started all over again that I learned about failing. I would meet with new members as part of their incentive to join the club and time an time again all of those new members were thankful for the program I had designed for them, but they wanted to work on their own. I couldn’t close a sale to save my life. I tell you that first summer I spent in Dallas was eye opening and depressing. I was failing and was miserable, but I learned from it. I realized I needed to learn more about sales and business. It was that summer that I started reading and learning about sales, success, and business. Each time I would lose out on a client I would evaluate what I did during my encounter with the prospect. I analyzed what I thought went wrong and made sure not to do it again. You see, losing can bring out the best in you if you are willing to learn from the loss. Take notes and write down in a journal what mistakes you are making and learn from them. The really cool thing about writing it down is years later when you are looking through your journals you see how successful you have become because of the mistakes that you made.
Now, don’t think I am saying to go out and lose because you play to win, but when you lose, and trust me you will lose at some point, learn from the loss. As John Maxwell says, “Fail Forward.” Learn from your loss and move forward. Keep pushing the envelope and make it your goal next year to aim high and guarantee yourself some losing lessons.
