In four years of moderating the 5AM Call, I have never made the mistake I’ve always feared – missing the call.
At least, up until this week.
On Monday morning, I completely dropped the ball. I overslept, waking up at 5:39 am – 39 minutes after I was supposed to start off the week moderating a call that starts my own morning routine – as well as the entire group of people who call in every day.
After my initial anger and disappointment, I had to reflect on what happened. Why did I oversleep? Why did I put myself in that position? There are, of course, the convenient excuses:
I have too much going on. I didn’t hear my alarm. I wasn’t fully prepared.
The truth is, everybody has a lot going on right now. Everybody has days when they oversleep. I could leave it at that and continue about my day. But that mindset doesn’t foster growth.
When we experience these types of micro failures, people often fall into one of two categories: they either brush it off as no big deal, or they beat themselves up over it. Neither is helpful for moving forward. So, what can we do instead?
We can’t dwell on micro failures; we have to own it and accept it.
Ultimately, my mission is to be better today than I was yesterday. It’s to continue to learn and carry my experiences forward.
Failures give me the fuel to do that.