How do you feel about failing?

No really, say it out loud, voice record your answer, make a note of what you think. Tell someone else what you feel about the idea of failure…

fail. feɪl/. verb.

 To be unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal.

Or/

To neglect to do something

“Failure sucks. Failure comes before resilience. Failure is a temporary disruptor. What will your failure encourage you to try?”

–       Sonya Barlow, Founder of Like Minded Females

Sonya talks about being temporarily disrupted…. well…what disrupts the norm? Have you ever tried playing with things, approaching stuff playfully or adding play into your life, even the serious sections?

“Failure to prepare is to prepare to fail. Nine times out of ten, what you perceive to be someone else’s ‘natural confidence’ is most likely diligent preparation. The good news is that anyone can do the work to be well-prepared and appear confident. It can have a transformative effect personally as it can stop you from feeling out of your depth in typically un-nerving situations like negotiations and networking.”

Alec Dudson, intern Magazine founder

Through playing, decisions and trying things out can be made without the fear of failure. By playing with ideas, being curious, and just testing things out in safe not judgemental spaces where the outcome is not measured or defined by right and wrong, its exciting what might happen.

How To Doodle Your Self Reflections

Self-reflection provides a great opportunity for us to pause, celebrate ourselves, understand what we’ve learned and how we’ve changed, and inform our future direction.

So, as I’m about to start a new chapter in my career, going back into employment and making The Play Philosophy my passion project, it felt fitting to take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned the last two years.

I chose to Doodle my reflections for a few reasons:

1. It’s fun!

We know that self-reflection is good for us, but in the busy day-to-day it can be hard to sit down and ask ourselves ‘what have I learned?’. By making it fun, we’re more likely to do it.

• It encourages flow.

With so many other distractions, self-reflection can easily become a superficial tick box exercise. Drawing and expressing ourselves visually is more likely to promote a state of flow, where we reflect in a state of deep thinking that has our full attention.

• It helps us to see new possibilities for the future.

Me saying that I know I need my sparkly rubber ring and some flippers on to propel myself to the peak of the waterslide, may mean nothing to you. But it means something very specific to me and has helped me to conceptualise what I have learned about myself in an entirely new way.

Let’s get to the fun doodley part.  (Use a piece of paper or multiple sheets, the bigger the better )

Imposter Syndrome

Even after writing eleven books and winning several awards, Maya Angelou couldn’t escape the doubt that she hadn’t earned her accomplishments. This feeling of fraudulence is extremely common. Why can’t so many of us shake feelings that our ideas and skills aren’t worthy of others’ attention? Or why do we feel like we don’t belong in certain spaces, or have the right to add our ideas or say how we feel? This feeling of not belonging is so common, with huge amounts of people talking about Imposter Syndrome in life, work and relationships on LinkedIn and Social Media. Have you ever felt like an imposter? Maybe you had to give a presentation for your course, and the syndrome struck!? it can happen to us all, and for so many different reasons and at different times in our lives. So, what can yo do about it? As always Stef Sword Williams has some great advice…

Optional Extras for today and this course: