Resolve to Fail in 2010

It is traditional for people to make a list of resolutions to accomplish in a new year. The resolutions are accompanied by happy thoughts for success and innovation.

I urge you to resolve to fail next year.

Seth Godin explained why failure is healthy last week. An extract:

Painters, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, chiropractors, accountants -- we all fail far more than we succeed. We fail at closing a sale or playing a note. We fail at an idea for a series of paintings or the theme for a trade show booth.

But we succeed far more often than people who have no ideas at all.

Someone asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, "none."

And there, you see, is the problem.

Bad ideas cause failure, and failure breeds success and happy thoughts to try, try, try again and do that thing that you do best. If you never take a chance, if you never gamble on a risk, if you never taste failure, you'll keep running in circles with no end in sight. The moment you divert from the path most traveled is the moment you can make a difference.

I want you to succeed in 2010, but you can only do that by being unique, by trying something different, by taking a risk, by failing.

You have two days until New Years Eve. Start making that list.

The above previously appeared at AriWriter.