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Project Alchemy Part Ten: Revisit Your Project In Time

Project Alchemy Part Ten: Revisit Your Project In Time

Once you feel you have worked through all the recommended steps, you may think your job is done. You’ve reviewed, reframed, accepted and analyzed. Now it’s time to just move on ... right?

Almost. You have done a lot of hard work to turn your less than successful events into positive experiences, and you deserve major kudos for that! But your job is not quite over. Let's not close that chapter just yet.

Any person of real, raw experience will tell you that the true lessons from their past did not reveal themselves for some time, and in some cases, for even a decade or more. It wasn’t until years later that the businessman realizes that the early failures in his sales career taught him perseverance and determination, skills that would be called into play as he led an incredibly profitable company through some very tough times.

The mom of three didn’t realize until her kids were grown and gone that the lessons she learned about juggling personal and professional responsibilities would serve her as she now works with single mothers in an outplacement agency.

The football player who got injured in the first game of the season did not realize at the time that he’d need to call on that same skill of resilience when he worked in his career as a sports agent and helped others through a similar situation.

That’s why it’s up to you to continue to revisit these parts and pieces of your past, continuing to look for patterns and clues that may only reveal themselves in time. That’s not to say you have to go through the same levels and steps of dissection. But it is important to periodically review your steps and stages.

A good time to do this exercise for your business and projects would be as part of your annual planning, either with your business coach or on your own. When you sit down to look at what your plan is for the future, take a look back as well. Look for the same things: the patterns, the clues, and the lessons. Use this information in your planning.

For more personal topics, you can conduct this review with a trusted friend or a therapist.

In either case, you may want to keep a log – a section in your notebook, or a file on your computer – where you keep your associated notes. While you may think it’s not worth the effort to revisit the past (and sometimes we convince ourselves it's not worth it, but only because we are not being honest with ourselves that it is too painful), it’s a step in the process you don't want to skip over. You never know what lessons you may learn for planning for the future by taking the time to go back.

Failure is, simply put, a fact of life. We fall down, we get back up. While you cannot avoid it, you can choose how you react to it, (and even better for us once we learn to respond rather than react) and whether you use it to inform your future. There are lessons hidden in each and every one of our life experiences. It’s up to us to decide if we’re going to go through (the sometimes admittedly painful) excavation process.

I hope that this guide has provided you some suggestions for how you can transform your own tough experiences into fuel for future projects, and for whatever success means to you. Remember, you are never alone in this process.

If you feel you need support – and we all do – you have many resources at your fingertips, both online and off. Business coaches, mentors, counselors, and even trusted friends and family members can help you put your fall-backs into perspective. Keep it real, keep on moving, and all best wishes!

If you wish to go back to the start of this Project Alchemy series, please start here.

Project Alchemy Part Nine: Accustom To Your New Reality

In the last section, we talked about redefining your story, and how doing so can provide you with the strength and hope to move forward. Now, I’d like to challenge you to accept your failures and dropped projects as simply a part of your past.

As much as you’d like to excise them or pretend they never happened, they are a part of you. Refusing to accept it, ignoring it, or trying to mask the past are all sure ways to make the burden just that much heavier to carry.

When you dislike a part of yourself – whether your romantic failures, your lack of physical health, or financial issues – that dislike spills over into other areas, and the negativity then only breeds itself and grows. Like attracts like.

It’s hard to feel good about work if you’re still beating yourself up for the failure of your marriage. It’s hard to appreciate your great family life if you hate yourself for how much you weigh. As much as you try, you can’t compartmentalize your life; it’s all a part of a whole.

Once more, here is where I would like to bring in the concept of alchemy. Your past struggles and hardships need not be what weigh you down. Use your inner strength, your passion ... albeit, your power ... to transform the hardships and struggles into that which you can use to create scenarios and the life that you envision.

Take the power of those negative, rooted emotions, and use it to propel yourself forward into new territory. Use the deep strength of your murky sadnesses to harness the truth of your deepest fears - and conquer them.

Part of the solution of which I speak is to work on accepting yourself and your new reality. If you had to downgrade your lifestyle, stop hating on your ten-year-old Camry that took the place of your BMW. Treat your new, smaller home with respect and love.

Learning to simplify all over again can be one of the greatest gifts ever bestowed upon us. Embrace where you are now, as much as you might wish to be somewhere else. There is more truth and power in the here and now than there is in the yet-to-be-manifest future.

Clarify, once again, your goals and dreams. Reframe your past, and find opportunities to tell that story to others. There is truly so much healing in storytelling. When you do so, you’ll start to find the hidden gems inside your failures. You may actually find that your dreams, goals, and visions have changed altogether. Embrace these with excitement, because you now have an incredible jumping board to leap from, and an effective new 'tool kit' with which to work.

It can be tempting to look around you and be convinced that no one else has failed like you have, or is suffering like you are. Quite frankly, that is idea is utter nonsense. Sometimes, and quite possibly more often than not, the most successful people hide the biggest scars. Name any famous person, from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Gates, and underneath the outward success lies a string of very human 'failures'.

Telling your story to others won’t just help you through, it will also help those that you share your story with.

Let us finalize this series now with Part Ten; Revisit Your Project In Time.

If you wish to read the Introduction and first two parts of the Project Alchemy series, you can do so here.

Project Alchemy Part Eight: Rewrite Your Story

One of the hardest parts of any 'failure' is having a so-called black mark on your personal history. People who have gone through a business or project failure, bankruptcy, or divorce, often express feelings of depression. Suddenly, their vision of themselves has completely shifted.

Rather than being the hero or heroine of their own story, they feel lost. No one likes to feel lost - this is inevitable what leads to feelings of depression. At this point, it is imperative to remember that most of what we believe others are thinking, is made up in our own minds ... bred by a weakened self-esteem.

There is a rather simple solution to all of this: Rewrite your own story.

Therapists use this with children who have experienced abuse. Children are asked to re-frame their history of abuse and see themselves as a survivor rather than as a victim. This shift of perspective is not just an exercise in storytelling; it can radically change one’s view on the events within his or her life, as well as greatly improve the outlook for the future.

Here’s how you can apply this to your life:

Let’s say you were let go from your dream job in the recent recession. You have had trouble finding work, and had to take a position far below your capabilities, delivering pizza at night to make ends meet. You might be thinking, “This is so brutal, I can’t even find another job.”

STOP! This is where the vicious cycle begins ... directly with these initial thoughts that are downplaying to our lives, our selves, our abilities.

Rewrite your story in a positive manner. Tell yourself you’re not willing to take unemployment or be supported by family members until you get a job you consider at “your level.” Do what needs to be done to feed the children. You’ll do what you have to, to support yourself. This is incredibly positive, and honorable.

We are all here, contributing to society, in ways that we can and in ways we know how. This keeps us healthy on all levels - physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Look at the characteristics you’re exhibiting in doing what needs to be done: perseverance, pride, and a strong work ethic – all far from weak, all far from unsuccessful.

Here’s another example. You planned your first webinar and had three attendees, with your expenses far outpacing your revenue. You feel like a complete failure, and you’re ready to throw in the towel completely.

Let’s rewrite this event: You haven’t lost anything. Instead, you’ve learned some important skills and lessons. You’ve taken a risk, and while it didn’t turn out the way you’d planned, one mistake does not a business failure make. Instead of thinking it’s a message that you should quit, try to see it as the necessary “first draft” of your very own story.

If it’s up to us to decide how we want to tell our stories, why not choose a positive spin to put on it? We are the primary characters in the stories of our lives. Regardless of occurring events, we are and will remain, the heroes and heroines of our stories. Claiming how you define yourself is the first step - reclaiming your power will inevitably follow. And this is worth well more than its weight in gold.

Want to see where this article series first began? Awesome. Go here.

Want to move on to Part Nine? Really awesome. Go here.

Project Alchemy Part Seven: Where Did You Go?

It's been said that between take off and landing, airline pilots are off course over 90% of the time. Along the route, their job is not so much staying on course, but to make an ongoing series of micro corrections that will bring them back in line to land at the precise point they want to.

When I first heard this, I was amazed. Not shocked, but definitely, wonderfully amazed. It just goes to show you how the law of inertia comes into play with everything. Once something is set in motion, it stays in motion. It is simply up to us to act as the guide ... and to keep our wits and intuitions about us while doing so. When our passion and intentions collide, it is imperative to set our ideas in motion and trust, trust, trust - while following our inner guidance.

Imagine what it would be like if we didn’t make any 'course corrections' along the way. What if we deviated a even just a few degrees upon take off of our project, lost sight and allowed ourselves to get distracted, and continued on the wrong course until the 'flight' was over?

After all, it's just a few degrees … right? How big a difference could it make? Well, anyone who has studied physics can tell you that a few degrees' change over time can result in a huge deviation at the endpoint of our journey. The longer the flight, the greater the deviation.

Let's transfer this analogy to your project. Get off track at the beginning of your project, and you may never recover your course. Meanwhile, if you're nearly there, a few wrong turns won’t do much damage.

Review your 'failure' through this lens. Consider the critical inflection points we identified in the previous section. At what point in the trajectory of your project did they occur? At take off, the landing, or somewhere in between? And when you got off course, which direction did you head?

Maybe you were brought to a standstill, dead in the water. Maybe you actually went backwards. Perhaps you got pulled to one side or another, distracted by another project or issue. Speaking from experience, this last point has been a thorn in my side with many projects!

After you know which direction you went, the next logical question is why you strayed. What was it that grabbed your attention? Was it an emergency in another area of your business or project, or another attractive project that promised more return on investment?

Or maybe you got scared and stopped the project, and took a few steps backward, convinced that you needed more research and information before you could proceed.

Identifying where you went off track, and why you did, are critical pieces of information to obtain as you move forward into your other projects and ventures.

Want to stick with me on this series and carry on? Let's journey on together into Part Eight; Rewrite Your Story.

Want to review the origins of this Project Alchemy series? Click over to the Introduction and Parts One and Two.

Project Alchemy Part Six: Clarify the 'Critical Inflection' Point

In major disasters, it's common to be able to review what happened and point to a critical moment when things could have changed. It's that go/no go moment when things could still have been salvaged, if someone had pulled the plug or chosen a different path.

While there may have been a number of different decisions leading up to this moment, the project or relationship or endeavor could still have succeeded if things have taken a different turn. In business terminology, this is sometimes called a "critical inflection point."

We've done a fine-toothed comb review of 'failure', looking for all the multitudes of different decisions and factors that contributed to the overall failure. But right now, I'd like you to seek out that one last moment when things could have turned out differently.

Maybe this is a point where you decided to go ahead with the product or the project, even though the initial feedback from your audience was less than stellar. In a relationship, maybe it's when you chose to go on a business trip versus attending a family reunion.

If you were trying to lose weight, maybe it's when you went on the all inclusive cruise to Alaska instead of the spa vacation. Before this point in time things were headed on one trajectory; afterwords, things took a different turn in direction.

The reason we're looking for this point is that it's important to be able to read the clues and clarify them while you're in the midst of the process. You need to be able to recognize when things are changing, when the market is shifting, a relationship is moving in a different direction, or the winds are turning.

In the future, naturally you're going to face other situations that can lead to a failure. There is no other way to say it, other than it's a part of life. But understanding how to recognize the clues leading up to that failure is important. And equally important is knowing when you have an opportunity to save your project.

So go ahead and review your particular 'failure'. Was there a critical inflection point? Hindsight is 20/20, so in retrospect, look for that moment in time when if you just made a different choice, things might be different now. One thing I have to say here, is that in my work, intuition is key. We absolutely have to acknowledge our intuitions, those little nudges and niggles that stir up from the inside. There is a lot to be said for the accuracy of gut instinct.

Sometimes the critical inflection points aren't so easy to identify. You may have to trace back threads of decisions and timelines to see when things could have shifted. It's worth the effort to do so, as knowing how to recognize these problems can save you future troubles.

No one likes to admit that failure is imminent. After all, you've invested all sorts of time and resources into the relationship project. Pulling the plug can be seen as a sign of defeat. But seeing the handwriting on the wall and not doing anything about it can cost you a lot, in many ways.

The next part of our journey brings us to Part Seven; Where Did You Go?

*If you wish to view the Intro and first two parts of this Business Alchemy series, you can do so here. The previous article leading up to this one can be found here.

Project Alchemy Part Five: Put An End to the Blame Game

Reviewing your project and finding out where things went wrong is not the same as pointing the finger and blaming. Identifying issues is constructive; blaming is destructive.

Sure, it's natural to want to blame someone or something for your failure. We blame the holidays for a weight gain, we blame our ex for their lack of understanding and empathy, we blame the market for the fact that no one bought our product.

There are several problems with this approach. First, things are rarely that simple. As we discovered in the last section, failure can come from a number of different sources, and usually involves several different factors.

Choosing just one as the "problem child" means that you can ignore other factors that could have been involved in the failure. Saying that the market is to blame for your lack of ability to sell your house ignores other elements, such as your pricing, the condition of your house, and your Realtor -- any one of which has an incredible impact on the situation.

Next, blaming usually involves placing responsibility on an external person or force. To say that our ex was the reason our marriage failed means that we take no responsibility, and therefore have no way to impact the future. Not only is that ridiculous, it also means that nothing we do now or in the future will make things any different. We've placed ourselves firmly in the victim's role.

While that means we might not have to take any responsibility, it also means that we cannot have any impact on the outcome. Since the only thing we can truly impact is our own actions, blaming others for a poor outcome means that we are giving up any possibility of things being better in the future. What this ultimately means, is that we are giving away our power.

You might be wondering what's the difference between identifying problems and blaming is. What it boils down to, is assigning culpability.

Perhaps you think your product launch failed because the timing was all off. You chose to release a product the week after Christmas, and a half of your market was off-line. Knowing that the timing was off is identifying the issue; saying that "it was Joe's fault" because he chose the timing is assigning blame.

It's not really important (for your future success) to know who's fault it was; instead it's important to know how you are going to change things to improve them next time around. It's likely that Joe already knows that he was the one who made the decision for the December launch. Pointing that out isn't going to solve anything.

If he already recognizes that he was the one to make the decision, you don't need to tell him that. And if he doesn't recognize that he was the one to make the call on timing, pointing that out now isn't really going to help anything either.

The best solution is simply to commit to a different decision the next time around.

Summing this up, blaming only causes hurt feelings. What this ultimately does, is wastes precious resources and energy. And your energy is precious. Your energy, is your power. Don't give it away. Find out where things went off track, but don't worry about where the blame may lie.

From here, let's move on to Part Six; Clarify the Critical Inflection Point.

*You can read the Introduction and first two parts of this series here.

Project Alchemy Part Four: Conduct a Project 'Postmortem'

In Part Three of this series, I asked you to review your chain of failures for patterns and connections. In this section, I want you to dive deep into your most recent failure, looking at all of the fine details and decision points that could have led to an undesirable outcome.

Businesses often conduct the postmortem of any recent project, positive or negative. They want to see what has gone right, of course, but they also want to see the points where they could have made a different decision to lead to even better results.

When conducting a project review like this there are a some specific guidelines to follow:

1. Bring together all your materials from the project. This means your chicken scratched notes on the back of napkins, your checklists, your spreadsheets, emails you sent to team members and customers, everything. Spread it all out in front of you in a big space and have a whiteboard handy for timelines, notes, and discoveries. You want to be able to look at everything at once, from beginning to end, without skipping anything.

2. Don't rush it. Give yourself time to fully absorb all the different elements of your project. If this sounds intense, it is. The larger the project, the more time and energy you need to put into this process. The more time you spend on it, the greater the returns will be.

3. Look at specific elements. There are some common areas where decision points can go for a ride. One such area is in personnel. Did you have the right people involved? Did you have enough people involved? Did they have the right roles, ones that were properly suited to them, and their individual talents and abilities?

Another common area where mistakes are made is in timing. Did you allow yourself enough time to thoroughly plan and execute your project? Did things occur in the right sequence, and with the right amount of time between them? Were you exceptionally hard on yourself in any way?

Finally, were you doing the right things? Sometimes you can have all the right people and all the right timing, all the right ingredients ... but your project simply doesn't fly. It's akin to releasing a product your market just doesn't want. It can be beautiful, you can do it 'right', but it still fails.

4. Go beyond the easy answer. It's human nature to want to find one reason that something didn't work, but it's rarely that simple. There are usually a number of different factors that contributed to the success or failure of any venture. Sure, some will be big and some will be small, but there is always more than one reason – and it's rarely the one you think of first.

5. Review your results with an objective listener. After you finish the 'postmortem', it's important to go over your findings with someone who knows you, knows the project, but is still an objective observer (and listener). You can present your findings to them, get their feedback, and review some of the action items you've discovered for your next project.

This is critical to ensure that you haven't gone for the easy answer, and that you aren't overlooking anything. A business coach or mentor is a great person to have involved at this stage, because they've been involved in similar processes before and will have some tried and true tools and methods for you to employ in your next project.

Please join me now for Part Five; Put An End to the 'Blame Game'.

*Here is where to find the Introduction and first two parts of this series.

Project Alchemy Part Three: Find the Reasons Why

After a failure, especially a painful one, it's common to ask, "why did this happen?" Some people will tell you that whatever "it" is, it's part of some master plan. You went bankrupt? It's for the best. Your company went out of business? It happened for a reason. You suffered a miscarriage, or a broken relationship? It wasn't meant to be.

When someone greets you with this kind of response, it can be very difficult advice to swallow. If you believe in a higher power, it may be hard to stomach the fact that he or she would make pain, exhaustion, and broken dreams a part of the natural plan. And if you don't believe in divine purpose, you may think it's all a big crap shoot anyway, and you just have some bad luck.

Perhaps try to look at it a bit differently. What if there was a plan? What if your failure did happen for reason? What if 10 years from now you knew you would look back and say, "Boy I'm glad that happened"? Timing and process play a huge part in absolutely everything. We learn as we go, and there is simply no way around this simple principle.

It might be hard to go to that place where pain and failure are residing. But I ask you to try, just for a moment. Imagine that there is some huge, divine, incredible plan. Imagine that everything that happens, does happen for reason. Now, look at your own failure, and ask what that reason might be.

If you went bankrupt, can you see that your failure might help bring your attention back to the true priorities in your life, or at least help get you out of the geographic area that is no longer resonating with you? If a relationship broke up, could it be that this will help you have the confidence to go after your own dreams? Could a failed product actually bring you to a better idea, one you wouldn't have discovered if you'd spent an incredible amount of time and resources on your first plan?

I'm not asking you to believe that there is a higher power guiding each and every one of your movements and decisions. What I am hoping that you can see, is that there is the potential for growth and wisdom to come out of your 'failure'.

Many times when people suffer a huge setback, whether it be battling cancer, a financial upset, or even a broken relationship, years later they often come back and say they are glad it occurred. It is my wish in writing this, for you to embrace your process once again and see that glimmer of hope that is inevitably always there - just waiting for you to begin again.

This brings us now to Part 4: Conducting a Project 'Postmortem'.

*Click here to view the Introduction and first two parts of this series.

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