Failure Secrets

That's a very good idea. It's too easy to not notice when we're drifting off-task...until we've wasted too much time. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks Stephen,

It's is true we are creatures of habit, when it comes to Success and Failure we generally repeat, so avoiding the failures is definitely a priority.

Thanks again for the post.

Chris

That's a great testimony. It can surely encourage people especially the warriors. Thank you for sharing.

That sounds like a really good idea - I'll start a journal today.

I too use a journal and find it very helpful, but I haven’t tried your technique, I’m going to give it a try and see what results I get. Thanks for the pointer

Nice idea. Never thought about it or heard about it, just now. I am starting an achievement book now, though. Do you think it is a nice idea to keep two books, achievement journa and failure secrets journal? I might get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing. Hehe. Anyway, do I need to set guidelines as to what qualifies in the failure secrets journal? Did this work for you more than the achievement journal? I'm really curious and interested.

I think this will be very helpful to add to my daily journal. I've noticed too that putting things in writing helps me focus and get clarity.

I've had to learn to keep everything in fewer places though. So I use my daily planner for to-do lists and a journal that I update at night. Otherwise, I forget where I wrote something or just forget that I wrote it.

This is great! I will definitely start doing this! It's amazing what we can do when we just become "conscious!" Thanks for contributing, love this idea.

I've been trying what you suggested now for a few days and I’m amazed at how much I get off track. I think this will be a great method to keep me to task!

very good idea.

This is great.... However... I would just reframe the word "failure" for result.... Cause in fact they are results. It is a success and a failure how you feel towards them, but they are always results. So if you want different results, in this cause "successes" you can definitely track down your past results to make them better next time.

I heard one professor used to request that her class write "failure resumes" as a way to teach people learn from their mistakes.

This is awesome man. We're all suspect of doing the stuff we know doesn't work, or gets us bad results.

Journaling definitely brings it into consciousness and prevents it far more in the future. Simple but effective. Thanks for sharing Stephen.

Seems like an effective little productivity booster.

Many of us just spend too much time on autopilot. We go through the day following our usual ruts, which are rarely perfect, but they seem like the most logical or easiest thing to do.

Things we did repeatedly became habits, habits that we later started doing automatically.

And these are hard to confront. They don't seem like enemies, after all. You're not even conscious that they can be detrimental to your success.

At least until you take a good look at your life and your goals, and see where you're standing and what did you accomplish in all these years.

If you've spent months lingering around the starting line, if you're unsatisfied with your position, you're very likely making some critical mistakes that will keep you fixated in that position till you decide to do something about it.

Stephen's idea seems to be great solution for that. Just think about your goals, and what you should be doing to accomplish them.

Then take a few moments and think about how you spent your day. Identify the bigger chunks first, see what took most of your time... and then simply ask yourself how did it help you get closer to your goals. If it didn't, write it down, keep a list, as Stephen suggested.

Once you label them, they're no longer invisible autopilot subprograms. Now you'll recognize them at the instant they occur... and then you have a choice — to keep doing what you were always doing (and keep expecting different results this time), or to focus on more fruitful activities... such as work.

If you're doing most of your work on PC, I'd suggest one brutally honest tool that will help you pinpoint your time drains — ManicTime[dot]com.

Looking at my rather unproductive day, I see that Firefox consumed 56% of my 9 hours on PC today. And I see the concrete sites and pages that I visit most often. And time I spend on them... which is here often measured in seconds. But it adds up.

And then there are all those mail accounts, RSS readers, instant messengers, visitors, and countless other things that can eat up all your time if you can't control yourself.

I think I'll do something Bencivenga said he used to do when he worked as an in-house somewhere. Instead of working on the same floor with everyone, wasting time chatting with them and getting interrupted all the time, he got himself an office away from them, away from phone, internet, TV and other distractions... and he made sure that no one can disturb him while he's working.

And that proved to be one of the more productive moves he made.

Once you separate yourself from the outside influences, and remove the TV/internet/other vices, then it's just you and your work. And your intention to finish it as soon as possible... and as good as you can.

Only barriers that can then exist at this point are mental ones... but that's a whole another topic, I already started ranting too much, I'll stop now.

Thanks for sharing this, Stephen. I love your newsletter, by the way. Great, swipeable e-mail headlines and useful tips in the e-mails.

/ending this badly written rant now.

Thank Dean I will definitely give this journaling a shot. I have heard about it before but I do like the way you use it. Thanks

An excellent idea. I've been doing some similar things, but this puts a twist on it that will give me new insights.

Thanks,
Dante

I always use a journal. I think I will give your tricks a try. Does'nt hurt to try!

Great post Stephen! A wise person once told me that "we never learn anything truly worth knowing until we have failed."

Keeping track of what does not work as it happens is a great way to get us on the right track!

I just started to keep a journal this week and am finding it to be extremely helpful.
I've noticed I am more focused and productive. Just like you mentioned failure is always a success when you learn from it.

Great idea, Stephen. Sort of along the same lines, something I try to do is start the day by writing three pages about whatever is on my mind, including successes, failures, current problems, brilliant ideas, etc. When the same thing keeps showing up then it's time to pay attention. I've also noticed that (even though I would rather type on my laptop) I get much more out of the exercise if I write with good old fashioned pen & paper.
(If any one is interested, this idea came from "The Morning Pages". It was intended for 'creative' people like artists, writers, etc but I think that we Internet Marketers would qualify as creative people)!!

I didn't know there's such a thing as Failure secrets. Thanks for sharing anyways.

I never thought about keeping a journal. I always have a to do list, and goals, but never did a journal. I guess i can incorparte this as a way of looking on what i can improve on and do better. How often do you write or update your journal?

Update: I had my sister over for dinner last night. She works a 9-5 in an office, and she told me she uses this exact technique, with a slight twist.

She uses Pomodoro timers to try and finish tasks in 25 minutes without taking a break. But so far, she's found it impossible to keep coworkers from approaching her for 25 minutes at a time (she has a lot of responsibilities, and many come to her).

But she's working on it. Whenever someone interrupts her during the 25 minute session, she writes down what the interruption was about. This helps her be proactive in stopping these interruptions later, and reminds her that she did get a lot done - even if she wasn't able to finish her task in 25 minutes.

She's been very happy with the technique.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

Really good idea. If the secrets of failure is known then the success will be not so far.

Wow, nice share. I bet it's mmrumii who is the most experienced when it comes to Self-Improvement. Based on his posts in most of the threads here i think he is into Coaching thingy. He has the most story to tell also.