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F is for Failure - Excerpt from The Artist's Suitcase · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: All this week I'm sharing excerpts from my book, The Artist Suitcase, 26 Essentials for the Creative Journey.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: This is a book that I wrote for artists of all kinds, including writers, painters, musicians, and anybody doing any kind of creative work.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to grab a copy, you can go to KentSanders.net slash suitcase.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is a very short book.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's very fun to read.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Little bitty short chapters, literally, it's 26 little short chapters.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: You can read each of them in like two minutes, maybe something like that.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: I designed it specifically that way so you can get into a chapter, get out, and really get something of value from it.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: So what I thought I would do this week is just share uh some excerpts from the book, because I haven't talked about this book in a while.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: So uh today we're going to dive into the chapter.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: F is for failure.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you will hear an excerpt from that.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you'll actually hear the whole chapter here in just a second.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: But a quick note in this chapter, I referenced being a college professor.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And even though now I'm a full-time ghostwriter and author and author coach, back when I wrote the book, I was a college professor.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just to give you a little bit of context.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, here is the excerpt from the book or from the chapter.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: F is for failure.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: F is for failure.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: One time a student sent me an email that said the take-home exam has the answer key on the back of it.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Did you mean to do that?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oops.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Professor fail.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: We all make mistakes.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's messing up a take-home exam, and other times it's more serious.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Once I advised a music student who had taken a part-time youth ministry, he served in the position for two years, even though he didn't enjoy it.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: He was angry with himself and felt like he had wasted two years of his life.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I told him that I didn't see it as a failure.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually a blessing to have so much clarity on what you shouldn't be doing.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to look at failure and see it as something positive.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: But with the right perspective, failure can become a stepping stone to success by following these four steps.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, don't beat yourself up.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy to feel bad about yourself when you mess up, but it doesn't help you move toward your goals.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: It only drives you further into negative thoughts and actions.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: When you fail, respond with clear thinking and reason rather than just emotion.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, figure out what went wrong.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why did you fail?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: What thoughts or feelings led to the failure?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Were there any habits that contributed to the problem?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: See if you can pinpoint what happened.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, develop a plan for success.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: What do you need to do now?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: What's your strategy?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard the saying, if you fail to plan, you're planning to fail?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: A plan will help you stay on track and give you a better chance of avoiding the mistakes that led to the failure in the first place.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, link arms with others.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: You will be much more successful with the help of others than you are by yourself.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's the synergy principle.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: A team of horses can pull more total weight when they work together than they can pull on their own.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Are you involved in a small group or support team of some kind?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: C.S.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Lewis said failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: One fails forward towards success.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Failing at something doesn't mean you're a failure.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can make mistakes, you can fail, you can take a two-year detour, but you're only a failure when you stop learning.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: So keep reaching, keep growing, keep pressing on.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: If you approach your failures correctly, you will find that they are stepping stones to greater things.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Questions for reflection.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, have you ever felt like you wasted a year or two or more of your life pursuing something that didn't pan out?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: What did you learn from it?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, why is it so hard to see failure in a positive light?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, what was the last failure you experienced?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: How did you deal with it?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, who is on your support team?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: What can you do to develop or strengthen those relationships?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Number five, think of a person you personally know who has bounced back from failure.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: What did you learn from their example?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I hope you enjoyed that chapter F is for Failure, which is, of course, an excerpt from the Artist Suitcase 26 Essentials for the creative journey.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, if you're interested in grabbing a copy, you can go to KentSanders.net slash suitcase.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, before I wrap up this book, I want to acknowledge uh and give a big shout out to today's sponsor, which is my good friend Karen Hunsinger, also known as The Word Wizard.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the deal: you may have written a great book and you might be the world's best writer, or uh maybe your mom told you that when you were 18, and maybe you're highly gifted and it doesn't make any difference.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: You can be the world's best writer, but your book isn't ready for publication until it's been in the hands of a master editor.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's why my good friend and collaborator, Karen Hunsinger, also known as the Word Wizard, is the perfect partner to make sure your author dreams don't become a nightmare.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: So here's what happens: a great editor doesn't just correct grammar and spelling, they also correct wordiness, shifts in tone and voice, overuse of particular words, and they also enhance transitions, clarity, and accuracy.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this isn't one of those types of deals where I'm just kind of promoting Karen because she's a sponsor.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually promoting Karen because, I mean, she is a sponsor, yes, but she's also a really, really amazing editor.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: I worked with Karen a lot of times, and Karen is your secret weapon for crafting the highest quality book possible.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you from being a part of many books and publishing every imaginable way, just about um over the last you know decade of my life or so, that having a good editor is absolutely vital to the success of your book.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Every time that I send stuff to an editor and I think it's really clean, it comes back with all these corrections and all the stuff that I missed.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: You absolutely have to use a great editor, and you want somebody like Karen, because if you don't use somebody like Karen, um, your book is not going to be as good as it could be.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the last thing you want is to put all this time and energy into a book, and there's a mistake, there's a lot of mistakes in it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: There are things that should have been fixed.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of like you've put in an A-level effort, but the product is like a B.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that is not what you want to happen as an author.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure and connect with Karen if you need a great editor for your book.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can go to Karenhunsinger.com for a free sample edit.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure she knows that I sent you there.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I just want to let Karen know she's awesome.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, she already knows she's awesome, and she knows I think she's awesome, but I want her to know that you know that I know that she's awesome.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now we're getting to meta, and obviously it's time for some caffeine.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna leave it at that.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Go to KarenHunsinger.com to connect with her for your free sample edit, and I will see you on the flip side.