Lessons in failure #1: choose your own finish line 🚴

When you stop to align with nature you get to harness her wisdom for use in your own life.

Why?

Well you learn how to navigate your own cycles, to get unstuck when life pauses, to let go when you are struggling, to trust and wait patiently when nothing is happening and to celebrate the moments of joy and accomplishment.

The Celtic harvest festival of Lughnasa is just around the corner and for us it is a time for reflection on our own personal harvest – what’s worked, what hasn’t. what changes we need to make etc.

Two weeks ago I “failed” at a challenge and now in the aftermath I am “in Lughnasa” that is, I am harvesting the lessons learnt and the nuggets of gold that come from every failure.

Lesson #1 – Choose your finish line
The challenge was epic – 160km and 4,600m of climbing. My finish line was shy of this, I chose to stop before the end and this was deemed a “failure”

But how often do we push ourselves beyond our limits in order to reach a finish line that is defined by someone else? How often do we break ourselves in order to get to a point that someone else has said is a “success”?

Or perhaps you’re keep moving it? You might reach a level of success but say “Oh I should keep going, I should aim for the next level, the next challenge, the next pay rise”

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t challenge yourself or get outside of your comfort zone, on the contrary I believe in doing this as often as possible.

What I am talking about is the breaking point. I’m talking about getting to know yours and asking yourself why you want to push yourself beyond it? What will it bring you? To what end and at what sacrifice>

Sometimes we need to the self compassion to stop before that point.

To the corporate worker who puts in 14 hour days, to the athlete who continues training while injured, to the perfectionist who strives for unattainable standards, to the parent who exhausts themselves providing for their kids…..to anyone who sees their breaking point and pushes right over it.

I have a question for you – what if you stopped?

What if you said enough is enough and there is more to life than this? What if you worked only 8 hours a day and found joy in a new hobby. What if you let go of perfectionism, did your best and let that be enough?

Can you allow yourself to define your own finish line? Can that be a success?

Yours in failure & revelling in it,

Ellen