Why I’ve Failed

August 12, 2007

OK, there’s no one reason, but I do know a main reason that I have not seen the success that I’ve been looking for. It’s not lack of knowledge, lack of a vision, or lack of a plan - it’s really the lack of a system. Not to say I have the first 3 mastered, but its the lack of a system that drives my fear of success which is rooted in my fear of maintaining success.

So it’s simple, right? Get a system. Maybe for some people it comes easy, but not for me. People roll their eyes at me about saying this all of the time, but it is true– I am a creative, right brained person.

Right brained people are great with things like brainstorming and idea generating because we think in patterns - seemingly random. Left brained people think in straight lines.

Guess who creates most of the systems? Yu-huh - the lefties. So I try to avoid reinventing the wheel and I find these systems and none of them make any sense to me. They are not things I can maintain.

Plus, a lot of them leave gaps. They assume you understand something or, because they think in lines, they don’t take into account all of the variables.

Worst of all, most really don’t have a system. They just have a bunch of methods or tools. That is the most overwhelming - fishing through a truckload of elements trying to join them together into a workable whole.

And to top it all off, there’s the guilt that these system creators lay on you. They don’t mean to, but it works that way for me. They say things like “don’t recreate the wheel” and “just get something going and figure it out as you go”.

It’s not really bad advice, but it really doesn’t solve the problem, does it? I’ve put lots of things up to figure out as I go, but they don’t go anywhere because I don’t have a system working behind it. So my thing now is to get my system up and figure the system out as I go.

Sometimes it’s right and good to recreate the wheel. I guess I’m a custom model because I haven’t been able to find a wheel to fit my particular car . I know that’s a shock to some of those systems creators out there who don’t understand that the system that is so simple for them doesn’t work for everyone.

My Little Rant about Left Brainers
I must admit, I’ve got a lot of hurt feelings in this area. It’s really hard when people look at the way you think and do then they tell you how you need to “do right”– like your way is wrong rather than different. It’s frustrating to see many, many perspectives while people around you tell you that they are far fetched or nonexistent because they only see the one in front of them.

I shouldn’t let it bother me so much, but I have a lot of old wounds. I have been put down by many people because I don’t act and think “normally”. For much of my life I thought there was something wrong with me and that I was less than others. It wasn’t until adulthood that I understood that I was creative and probably my 30’s before I started understanding the value of that and how that shapes me.

OK, those are my issues. I’m working on them. I’ll move on now.

What am I doing about it?
The first thing I did was look back at systems I have created that worked. It was a good experience for me.

I have systems that I set up for business that worked for me. This includes Amazon, EBay, vending, and teaching music lessons.

I really created some great things working at my Mom’s H&R Block franchise and now I’m building new ones working in a company owned office. It’s easier at a job than at home because I don’t have home disorganization clashing with office disorganization.

I’ve tried for years to find a working system for my Shaklee business. A lot of my rant above was frustration with the Shaklee systems- both from the company and from the field. (I’m starting to see some glimmers of cohesion in that area, thankfully.)

Other systems I’ve created have to do with my personal life. It was a real eye opener when I went to a conference when my son was a few months old. I was writing down instructions on how to care for him. It was very detailed and I realized how I had really created all of the systems about how his day went and how to handle situations that come up.

When I started to think about these things, everything else came into perspective. It seemed doable because I had already done it. I’ve just got to do it bigger and more deliberately.

It really seems much more possible to me now.

To your best,

Deborah

Posted in 7 Figure Code, General