Habit #7 – Falling Up – update


This is not a daily habit.. hopefully.

But it’s a good habit to learn.. we all “fall” now and then.

It’s about using that downward momentum to propel ourselves in the opposite direction. It’s about capitalizing on setbacks and adversity to become even happier, even more motivated, and even more successful. It’s not falling down, it’s falling up.
–Shawn Achor

Shawn Achor has written brilliantly about this in his  beautiful book “The Happiness Advantage“. Please check out my post about the book.

A “fall” is the perfect opportunity personal growth. Try to remember with each small or big setback to be better at something. Be kinder to people around you, be more grateful, smile more, visit friends and family more often, travel, go to concerts, … etc.

Meet “the fall” with more happiness…..

Study after study shows that if we are able to conceive of a failure as an opportunity for growth, we are all the more likely to experience that growth
–Shawn Achor

Victor Frankl writes about three main avenues on which one arrives at meaning in life:

  1. By creating a work or doing a deed (..work..)
  2. By experiencing something or encountering someone (..love..)
  3. Most important, however:
    Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation.. may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by doing so change himself. He may turn a personal tragedy into a triumph.

Scott Dinsmore:

Every screwup gets you closer to your masterpiece. Make mistakes as often as you can. Start falling.


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