If you’re getting writer’s block while drafting your New Year’s resolution, try flipping the problem and focus on failure over success. When we set our annual goals, we’ve been trained to look for success, and when that success doesn’t come we often just leave our goals behind. Defining success can be very hard even if you know tricks like SMART criteria, as shown by all the broken resolutions in February. So instead, make your goal to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough, so resolve to try your hardest and fail gloriously. Be like Times Square, and ‘Drop the Ball’ this year!
Picture the fear of failure that’s holding you back. Is it looking like a fool? Losing money on an investment? Finding out you don’t have the skills you thought? Then set a resolution to make your fear a reality. Make yourself a fool in front of a large audience. Take a risky bet. Try something totally new or return to a skill that’s rusty. If you succeed, you learn a lot about yourself along with new skills. Or, you fail to fail and end up with a win, and another broken resolution to add to your list of incomplete ‘success resolutions’ from prior years.
If you’re helping a new Product Manager set their own goals, creating goals to fail makes a safe space for learning, personal growth, and expanding boldly into their new multi-faceted role. Even if the final goal is written as a success, thinking about failure can jumpstart creative juices and lead to key steps to achieving success.
Good luck setting your resolution this year. Failure awaits!