How To Use Personal Failure As An Opportunity To Move Forward

In a saturated market of life coaches and high-vibe, New Age living, I want to share a bit about the shadow side of “living your best life”—especially if that life exists outside of the box. You can put hours upon hours into something and have it just not work out. You can be “aligned” externally and internally and something gets in your way.

It’s not personal. You can do everything “right”. And yet, you will face obstacles. So, in the interest of honesty and authenticity, I’d like to share some of my failures as a life coach, nomadic traveler, and creative artist.

Because walking your own path requires resilience. When you see an obstacle, it’s about how you show up at the table—again, and again, and again.

Let me tell you a few things that didn’t work out for me this year…

I had not even one sign up for my workshop that was scheduled for this week. I checked all of the boxes for marketing, promotion, web design, etc. Nothing.

I planned and scheduled four workshops this summer and none of them happened. I didn’t even begin selling them, I just realized they weren’t right.

I had a 1:1 client who scheduled a program earlier this year and then bowed out of it. Again, it wasn’t aligned.

I could write a novel about the countless battles I have DAILY as an entrepreneur trying to make a living “outside of the box”…

…The amount of times people scoff at me for being naïve for pursuing this.

…The amount of times people “suggest” I just get a corporate job and give up.

…Or (this is my biggest pet peeve) the amount of times people give me unsolicited business advice without ever having a clue what it’s like to actually own and run a business.

The amount of times we fall down and get up as creatives, entrepreneurs, dreamers, and artists is literally infinite. I’m not here for your pity or apologies. I’m sharing this to share, honestly, what the price of “freedom” is.

If you’ve been here, I want you to know you are not alone.

I’m here for resilience. I’m here to move with grace.

And oddly, from my “failures”, have come some of my brightest and biggest wins of this year. For instance, this writing shares everything I had hoped to give in my “failed” workshop.

Years ago something like this would’ve really knocked me down.

But instead, I spent last evening back at the drawing board with a dear friend, brainstorming and figuring out where to go next. I’m shuffling the next six months of plans, rethinking my direction, and playing with ideas.

In this brainstorming session, I discovered 8 different ideas that INSPIRE me beyond belief AND allow me to utilize my resources in the best of ways.

And I’m willing to try each one of them because I refuse to not offer things to you that I know genuinely provide people with value, inspiration, or a mindset shift that will rock their world.

This was actually what was meant to be given…

And everything that was meant for me has arrived simply through viewing this as an incredible opportunity to move forward.

You are not a failure if something along your journey doesn’t work out, no matter how aligned it feels at the time—trust the lessons and the timing of your life.

The more we authentically share what we’re growing through, the more honest of a world we create.