you have to accept what they are doing in the way they are
doing it. It does mean that you are more likely to be in a state
where you can influence it.
The beliefs of excellence give us more resourceful ways of
responding to less than ideal situations in ways that are most
likely to lead to a win/win outcome. The focus shifts from
blame, disdain, and frustration to curiosity, understanding, and
concern, particularly in terms of how to enable yourself and
others around you to have more choice, so that the best choice
for one or a few becomes the best choice for many.
How many people do you know who live their life with
regrets? Do you? Knowing what you know now, there may very
well be decisions you would change, places you would have
gone, people you would have treated differently. But this is
you now, with different skills, different knowledge, different
experience. At that time the choices you made were the best
available to you. Once you can accept this you can let go of
regrets; they clutter the places reserved for other more self-
fulfilling choices.
Christopher Columbus, John F Kennedy, Terry Waite, Richard
Branson, Roger Bannister are all people who persevered to get
what they wanted against all odds, people who held the belief
that “There is no failure, only feedback.” I'm sure if we
interviewed Christopher Columbus today he would not say,
“Actually, I put it all down to this belief, ‘No failure, only
feedback’”! However, for him to do what he did this must have
been what he believed in order to find the courage and
tenacity to carry on with his exploration.
Experience and acceptance of failure =
defeat and resignation
Experience and review of feedback =
learning and choiceImagine that you hold this belief to be true. How would it
influence how you respond to:
❏ Your acceptance of feedback from others?
❏ Your confidence in giving feedback?
Choosing responsesTHERE IS NO FAILURE,
ONLY FEEDBACK
WRITE YOUR OWN LIFESCRIPT: BELIEFS OF EXCELLENCE 245