Poor, poor failure. It gets such a bad rap. 

It’s like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown – no one wants to be around it because it stinks. 

Or does it? 

I happen to think failure is quite lovely and maybe, just maybe, after I call out your inner critic’s faulty logic, you may start thinking the same.

Believable lie #1
If I don’t fail I won’t have to feel bad

Sue wants to lose weight and she’s tried countless times to do it before. Each time she gained the weight back. And now? Oh hell no! She doesn’t want to attempt weight loss again because she doesn’t want to feel bad again. So she stays busy and distracted at home and work. 

But Sue can’t escape her inner critic 24/7. 

Sue sees a Facebook post from a friend who lost 10 pounds. She feels jealous. Like a loser who can’t get her s*%! together. 

She goes to the fridge to eat her emotions. After the temporary relief, she’s gone from feeling bad to worse. 

Tabling the important goals you have for yourself because you don’t want to feel bad still makes you feel bad. 

 
 

Believable lie #2
Researching, evaluating, and planning increase my chances of not failing

OK, I’ll give you this one. Doing more research, thinking, and planning does increase your chances of not failing and you know what else it does? It keeps you safe from achieving the goal you say is important to you.

Inner Critic makes you think there’s a magical amount of ‘enough’ but she always hides the amount.

So you do another Google search, read another book, journal about it, ask five more friends what you should do, sleep on it for another month, and pray about it daily. And in the end? You’re still exactly in the same place with even more info bogging you down. You’re still literally ON the start line. 

Staying on the start line because you’re afraid to fail is failing. 

Believable lie #3
Failure is permanent and means something about me

Ever heard of confirmation bias? Whatever you’re focused on is what you find supporting evidence to be true? 

Let’s go back to Sue’s weight loss journey. Her outdated weight loss tactics (not Sue) kept creating ‘fails’. And then Sue would make up a story about her failure and back it up with supporting evidence. 

“I’m a failure. I’ll never lose weight. See!? I’m still the same weight plus, if I wasn’t a failure, why did I scarf down the rest of the apple pie?”

This cycle keeps picking up strength until it feels like a category-five hurricane. Carnage everywhere. 

Failure is an inner critic mantra that has nothing to do with the real person in the room – you.
 

Believable lie #4

Failure is a sign of weakness
 

Pick someone you admire who’s successful. A sports figure. Writer. Musician. A local restaurant owner. Someone who’s lost weight and kept it off.

You know why you admire them? Because they failed. And they didn’t fail once or twice. They failed a shit ton. 

Sometimes their failures would knock them right out of the ring and keep them down for months before they mustered the energy to get back at it. And because they didn’t quit, they eventually won.

 

Failure produces strength, resilience, and clarity. It’s the necessary component to goal achievement. 

I’d love to know, does failure smell any better now? Which believable lie trips you up? Click here and let me know or share in the comments.

If you’ve been afraid to fail (again) at weight loss, eating healthy, getting to the gym, or even another important goal, and you’re ready to stop the cycle, I have a last-results program that makes failure your b*&^#@. 

Speaking of lies — here are five more your inner critic is spinning that keep you from being at peace with your body, food, and fitness. I used to play into all five of them without even knowing. They’re sneaky. Grab the download here now.