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“100 Days of Designing My Life: The Reflection Journal” is your personalized guidebook to deeper self-understanding, authentic action, and confident change-making for your career and life.
In Volume 4: "Iterate," coach, facilitator and artist Ashley Jablow invites you to let go of perfectionism, get out of analysis paralysis, and make peace with your fear of failure – so you can get unstuck and confidently take action to realize your most authentic dreams.
How? By choosing experiments over expert answers, and building prototypes, not plans.
Through inspiring, eye-opening reflection questions, paired with hand-illustrated watercolors, this journal will guide you through the messy, creative process of charting your course toward a career and life beyond your wildest dreams.
Transformative, meaningful change is possible for you, and the four volumes in this journal collection – Discover, Define, Imagine, and Iterate – are your compass. Are you ready to set sail?
Excerpt from Volume 4: Thoughts on Failure
Let's start with everyone's favorite topic: failure.
We might know what failure feels like, but what does it actually mean? When I looked it up, I was struck by one definition that felt new to me:
Failure (n): Falling short.
This definition reminds me of a baby learning to walk. First, she crawls. She tries to pull herself up to stand, and of course, she falls down. She practices, over and over, until she can reliably stand on her own. She takes one hesitant step forward, and inevitably tumbles. She tries again, taking two steps, and falls again.
With time and practice, the baby learns how to move her body, maintain her balance, and walk out of the room. As we watch, we don’t get mad or frustrated with her. We don’t call her a failure, or discourage her from trying. We trust in her experience of iteration, knowing that each fall is bringing her one step closer to her goal.
For many of us, failure feels like a dead end. But what if failure is actually a sign we’re making progress?
What does failure mean to you? How do you define it?
Think about the last time you tried something (setting a goal, getting a new job, asking someone on a date, etc) and failed at it. How did you know you failed?
What did this failure feel like to you, emotionally or physically? Where in your body did you experience the sensations or feelings of this failure?
In what ways might this failure actually be a sign you’re making progress?