No Regerts - what if you were guaranteed to fail?
Something I’ve been asking myself and my coaching clients a lot lately is, “What if your goal was guaranteed to fail?”
If the all-knowing business fairy told you success would never come, would you still try?
It’s easy to plan for success. It’s the best-case scenario, the dream outcome. Many of us haven’t even considered preparing for failure, though.
By pondering what it would be like to fail, you step into your project with the confidence that, no matter what happens, you’re equipped to handle the outcome—both financially and emotionally.
It’s about having the peace of mind that you’ll come out stronger, resilient, and ready for the next chapter even in the worst-case scenario.
The real-world example that got me thinking about this is a friend and client who is considering whether to pay for a publicist for her next album release.
She has a chunk of money, and she’s considering whether to buy a guitar or pay for a publicity campaign.
If she chooses the guitar, at the end of the release period, she still has the guitar.
If she chooses to pay the publicist, at the end of the release period she might have some cool interviews, reviews, and video premieres to show for it, or she might have nothing.
No money, no reviews, no guitar.
We talked it through, and she realized that paying a publicist wasn’t about getting 10 reviews and 3 interviews—or some arbitrary goal— but giving this album a real shot at being heard by the most people.
When you consider all the possible outcomes of pursuing a goal and make peace with the worst possible result, you enter into the pursuit in the best possible headspace.
Going in knowing that, no matter what happens, you’ll be ok puts you in the positive and confident headspace that—ironically—makes the best-case scenario outcome far more likely.
The client who is considering a publicist knows that—even though she’s, of course, hoping for the best—if the worst-case scenario comes true and the publicity campaign is a total “failure,” she’s still going to be happy she tried.
No regerts.
(I will never not think of this)
