You guys know we love Seth Godin. One of his latest blog posts, Brace for Impact, is perfect for #FailureFriday.
He opens the piece by stating that while there are some situations in which bracing for impact is a good idea (martial arts), in most situations it doesn’t do any good. The act of bracing for impact - tensing your muscles and mentally preparing for the worst - doesn’t actually do any good if you’re “about to hit a tree at thirty miles an hour, or the jet is about to slam into the wall of the Grand Canyon.”
In true Seth fashion, he takes this idea a bit further and uses this analogy to how we approach our lives:
“Worse than this, far worse, is that we brace for impact way more often than impact actually occurs. The boss calls us into her office and we brace for impact. The speech is supposed to happen next Friday and we spend a week bracing for impact. All the clenching and imagining and playacting and anxiety—our culture has fooled us into thinking that this is a good thing, that it’s a form of preparation.
It’s not. It’s merely experiencing failure in advance, failure that rarely happens.
When you walk around braced for impact, you’re dramatically decreasing your chances. Your chances to avoid the outcome you fear, your chances to make a difference, and your chances to breathe and connect.”
Good stuff, right?
When it comes to your career, where and how are you bracing for impact? Tell us below in the comments.