Photo credit: Brittany Reid

Our group was huddled together staring at the physical challenge in front of us. We argued and brainstormed and tried different strategies. Sometimes we’d succeed. Most often we’d fail.

And when we failed, there was always a calm and whimsical voice that responded “begin again”. No judgement. No drama. Just a reminder to start over.

I won’t say any more about the details, in case any of you enroll in the program in the future but this was taking place at one of four retreats that were part of a 10 month leadership training program I attended through CTI where I did my coach training as well.

Those words still echo through my mind regularly. “Begin again”. The neutral, friendly tone was not making any one of us wrong and encouraged us not to indulge in the self-judgment that most of us are so quick to default to as well. And rather to simply shrug off the failure, learn from it, and move on.

Think of the goals you set, the dreams you have, the projects you take on… The bad habits you’re trying to let go of or the good habits you’re trying to instill. When you try and fail — or perhaps succeed for a while, get inspired, but then inevitably fail again — and are tempted to give up, REMEMBER THIS:

You don’t need to beat yourself up for weeks.
You don’t need to give up.
You don’t need to hide your mistakes.
You don’t need to worry about looking bad.
You don’t need to make up a huge dramatic story about what a failure you are.

None of that is helpful. And ALL of that is a waste of time. Instead, just begin again.

Every month you get a chance to start over. Every week. Every day. Every hour. Even every moment is an opportunity to reset, re-commit, and begin again.