And I for one think it’s totally uncalled for…..

Failure really is a gift.

I know that sounds like group-work, healing-circle, psycho-babble; but seriously it really is!

Nikki Gemmell (The Weekend Australian Magazine) wrote in her article Dust Yourself Down, about Wimbledon High School in England holding a ‘Failure Week’ where the emphasis was on having a go as opposed to playing it safe.

The headmistress Heather Hanbury wanted to show “it is completely acceptable and normal not to succeed at times in life…the girls need to learn how to fail well…and how to get over it…fear of failing can be really crippling and stop the girls doing things they really want to do.”

How fantastic is it to see the educational system embracing failure rather than this politically correct ‘certificates for all’ attitude.

Similarly Brisbane Girls Grammar has introduced a course for first year students centred upon the importance of risk-taking, building resilience and learning to view failure not as a set-back but as a way to grow. I think many of us (myself included) could do with a dose of this type of learning.

Try to guess who was described in his primary school as ‘a constant trouble to everybody, he cannot be trusted to behave himself anywhere. And he took 3 attempts’ to gain entrance to Sandhurst Military College.

None other than Winston Churchill who is frequently listed as Britain’s greatest Prime Minister. Crucially though Churchill was always a risk-taker.

I thought many times about failure over the two weeks in London watching our 2012 Olympians ‘fail’ in the eyes of the media who interviewed them.

How many times did we hear them being asked about how ‘disappointed’ they must be at only winning a silver or bronze medal.

But what I heard instead were many athletes reminding us all just how uniquely pressured the Olympic arena is, how common it is for the favourite to ‘fail’ and therefore how precious and valued a medal of any colour should be.

They’re absolutely right of course.

Weve become used to our Olympians punching above their weights in so many sports.

Now the world has caught on and caught up! But does that mean we are failing or perhaps is it just reminding us how rare and precious an Olympic gold medal is.

And maybe we shouldn’t take for granted that Australia will finish high on the medal table. To be able to state that you are truly the very best in the world, at that very moment, is a very special thing indeed.

I saw a common thread in the stories of Sally Pearson, Anna Meares and especially Tom Slingsby at the London Olympics. It could be argued that all of them ‘failed’ in Beijing. Sally and Anna both came home with silver medals.

Sally’s silver in Beijing was quite unexpected so it wasn’t a failure at all.

Many athletes could happily retired but not one as driven as her. She saw it as unfinished business and used the ‘failure’ to drive her forward to become the elite athlete and World and Olympic Champion that she is now.

Anna Meares had a horrific accident on the track only weeks before Beijing and was 2mm away from permanent paralysis.

So her silver medal was somewhat of a triumph. She set a goal however to turn the tables on Victoria Pendleton and had to endure years of losing to her arch rival. Had she not continued to take risks in the very public arena of elite cycling she would not be Olympic Champion today.

Tom Slingsby did by many measures fail in Beijing.

He came in as World Champion and a red hot favourite and had his worst regatta ever finishing 22^nd. He was close to giving sailing away entirely until he heard an inspiring speech from a former sailing champion. He also used his ‘failure’ to motivate him for the next four years to achieve Olympic gold.

Failure is never the end of the world; you’re always learning something in the process and it’s often veering you onto a different, better, stronger path.

As Henry Ford said “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” So failure is a gift, an opportunity and a way to set a different path to even greater success.

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I’m pleased to welcome the return of Daniel Solodky as a guest author for InterviewIQ with a really interesting blog about the crisis many more of us are facing in looking for more meaning in our careers and our lives in general.

Daniel is a Career Counsellor and Psychotherapist, helping individual clients to grow their professional working life.

Over to you Daniel…..

Over the past twelve months, I’ve noticed a distinct shift in a client’s willingness to talk about spirituality. Clients frequently want to find more meaning at work and want to discover answers to the big questions in life such as ‘Why am I here?’ and ‘What is my life purpose?’ as part of the traditional job or career change process.

In some cases, this profound shift in world view may be part of a larger existential crisis.

An existential crisis refers to the shaking of your very core. The purpose of your existence comes into question. It is often associated with the deep questioning of your life purpose and the realisation that many of your beliefs about life and the world no longer hold true. Many of your centrally held values and beliefs around life and society come under the spot light and no longer seem to stand up to a renewed sense of questioning and self-enquiry.

From a career perspective, an existential crisis may bring a profound shift in your approach to work. This may include:

1. Wondering what the purpose of your life is
2. Feeling that your career is not connected to your life purpose
3. Longing to do something with more meaning
4. Experiencing a sense of confusion about what to do in life, whilst feeling a strong call to make a difference
5. Having to cope with conflicting circumstances such as the strong inner desire to find a more enriching role but feeling restricted by a mortgage, family, relationship or other obligations
6. Feeling that your career to date has been a waste of time
7. Feeling like you have lost touch and wanting to break free from the world of work

At the most basic level you may start to wonder if life is really just about making money, getting a promotion and the bottom line. A shift of this kind may also result in seeing through the very construct of work itself – that the pressure to maintain a high profile career driven by success and status may not necessarily meet your most inner needs. On the other hand living in western society clearly requires ongoing income to provide for our most immediate material needs.

On an individual level, what makes an existential career crisis so powerful is that typical approaches to career management may not always work. A strong desire to explore the big life questions, such as ‘Why am I on the planet?’ and ‘How can I feel a greater sense of connection with life itself?’ tend to take over your thoughts. Topics such as spiritual awakening, meditation, higher purpose and oneness with the universe start to interplay with the new quest for answers – yet it is hard to find a well paying career that allows for such exploration.

Feeling increased levels of sensitivity is also another profound shift that may happen. Your level of awareness may shift to the global level, in which the health of the environment and society become primary concerns. It can become an immensely confusing time and may feel very difficult to stay grounded, let alone feel a sense of optimism and excitement about the future.

It may help to know that you are not alone in this period of global change. Every day I am humbled to meet clients who are prepared to question their very reality whilst having to balance work, family and finances. It’s not an easy game, yet the quest for answers can bring some profound and extremely rewarding life changes – albeit with a roller coaster of emotions.

At the organisational level the quest for more meaning calls for a new generation of leaders who are able to cater for the psycho-spiritual needs of employees. At the same time they need to have the courage to make decisions that are in the best interests of society, the environment and the bottom line. It’s a vicarious position that has no easy answers, but perhaps within this dimension lies much of the answers that one may seek.

At the personal level, the solution to resolving an existential career crisis is also not an easy one. However it is not only reserved for yogis and gurus in a distant land. What is needed in today’s world are more people willing to question the status quo and bring a renewed sense of caring, compassion, mutual care and environmental preservation to daily work life.

It may involve a willingness to go within and really honour your true desire to express yourself in a new, creative, genuine and uncensored way. Paradoxically, it’s not so much about pinning this down to one answer. Rather it’s about being open to exploring the many facets of your being as you let go of old patterns, beliefs and values that no longer serve you. It’s a wonderfully scary, emergent and turbulent journey that presents no fixed destination; however it can be full of surprises, life learning and unfolding.

If you’d like to get in touch with Daniel email: TeamIQ@interviewiq.com.au or click here: linkedin.com/in/danielsolodky.

Thanks Daniel. I’d like to add that my next blog Lifelong Careers – A New Blueprint could resonate with people looking for deeper meaning in their careers and lives and may be at least one piece of the jigsaw.

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