If you wish to make an impact and power up in life, your willingness to pivot and fail forward in the face of a challenge matters a lot. Whether in business or in personal life, we all need to make pivotal decisions each day. Pivoting, or the ability to adapt and change direction in life, is crucial for personal growth and success. While uncertainty and challenges are unavoidable, each challenge brings an opportunity along with it. It’s up to you to recognize the opportunity and rise up to the challenge. 

Pivot: Using your decision-making skills to level up

Renee Knorr interviewed Janet Alvarado, a serial entrepreneur, about the need to pivot to overcome challenges in life. Whether it’s a big change in your life, or a decision you need to make at work, you’ll need to pivot and make a decision that helps you level up in life. Here are some ways to pivot when life presents you with a learning opportunity:

Assess the Situation

Start by carefully evaluating the current situation and understanding the need for a pivot or a vital decision. What has changed? What are the challenges or opportunities that require you to make a decision? Understand the context and gather relevant information to inform your decision-making process.

Make a decision

Based on your assessment, choose the option that best aligns with your goals, values, and the information available to you. Trust your judgment and make the decision with confidence, knowing that there is no such thing as a perfect decision and that there will always be some level of uncertainty.

Clarify your goals

Making pivotal decisions requires you to clearly define your goals and what you want to achieve. Consider your short-term and long-term objectives and align your decision with them. Ask yourself what outcomes you desire and how the pivot or decision will help you achieve those outcomes. 

Organize your steps

Break down each of your goals into smaller, actionable goals, and devise an action plan to achieve these goals. Track these daily to know how far you’ve come along your journey. Your pivotal decisions are only worthy if you take the time to celebrate your small wins.

Trust the process

Evaluate the pros and cons of each option, considering the potential risks, benefits, and trade-offs, but trust your decision-making skills. While it’s good to consider the implications of each choice on various aspects of your life, know that pivoting and taking action toward achieving your goals is better than sitting idle in inaction. 

Monitor and adjust

Monitor the progress of your pivot or decision and be prepared to adjust if needed. Know that change is inevitable. Stay adaptable and flexible and be willing to revisit and revise your decision as new information or circumstances arise.

Failing Forward – 9 keyways to embrace failure

Ramon Ray, business strategist and author of Celebrity CEO, shares his experience around organizing and producing events across the country at times when events are considered risky by several other hosts. As a matter of fact, events are expensive; they require considerable effort in terms of planning, marketing, strategizing, and execution. Ramon credits his success to his vision and his persistence in making this vision come true, before he knew if it would work. This is an example of cultivating the concept of failing forward. 

What is the “failing forward” mindset?

Oftentimes, working on fulfilling your vision seems like a huge risk, and failure seems inevitable. Should you take the risk and keep taking action consistently, or should you wait for the right opportunity or circumstances to present themselves to you? It’s the former: take the risk, accept the challenge as a learning opportunity, and act today.

How do you act today and move consistently in the direction of achieving your goal, knowing fully that you may fail? This involves embracing failure as a possibility and deciding to fail forward. Here are nine key reasons why you should be okay with failing forward:

1. Pivot is necessary for success.

Success doesn’t result from being stationary; it’s the result of consistent action and taking risks. Failing forward allows you to pivot and utilize your decision-making skills to envision an alternate path toward fulfilling your vision. Trying and testing is how we succeed.

2. Measure results and readjust.

Failing forward allows you to evaluate the result of your actions and readjust your action plan accordingly. It allows you to gauge what you’re doing wrong and what is working in your favor and recalibrate accordingly. This intelligence isn’t possible through failure to act.

3. Be prepared to stop.

Sometimes your experiment will yield unfavorable results, and you’ll need to stop the pursuit of the said goal. This is what embracing failure entails: being prepared to stop and take up the pursuit of the next goal.

4. Understand that people will be disappointed.

Not all your ideas will be super successful, and not all actions will yield the expected results. You are likely to disappoint people around you in the process. Know that the experiment was worth the lessons and fail forward anyway.

5. Build trust

When you’re working toward a goal, you’ll need to enroll others in your vision to make it a success. Be transparent with your team members and audience and appreciate their trust in your journey.

6. Don’t stay down.

Don’t give up in the face of failure. Instead, persist and adapt your approach based on the lessons learned. If you fall down, get back up, and try again with a new approach.

7. Use failure as a stepping stone to succeed

Refine your strategies, make adjustments, and continue moving forward towards your goals. 

8. Reframe failure as feedback.

Instead of viewing failure as a negative outcome, reframe it as feedback. Failure provides insights and information about what doesn’t work, which can help you refine your approach and make better decisions in the future.

9. Maintain a growth mindset.

Cultivate a growth mindset, which is the belief that your abilities can be developed through effort and learning. Embrace challenges and setbacks as opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge. Avoid a fixed mindset that sees failure as a reflection of your inherent abilities or worth.

Using a video marketing strategy to pivot your business

Video marketing has become increasingly important in today’s digital landscape due to its effectiveness in engaging audiences, conveying messages, and promoting products or services.

Aurea McGarry, TV show host and podcast expert, and her guest Tina Davis, founder of Petri’s Place, discuss the importance of highlighting your uniqueness and getting the world to know the real you with the power of a solid video marketing strategy in place.

Here are some key reasons why video marketing is important:

• High engagement: Videos are highly engaging and can capture the attention of viewers quickly. They combine visual and auditory elements, making them more compelling and memorable compared to other types of content. 
• Sharing your story: Wild rehabber Tina Davis emphasizes this point. Video marketing allows her to share her story, demonstrate what she does, and showcase her expertise in rehab. It also allows her to connect with her target audience on an emotional level, which can lead to increased engagement and donations to enable more proactive rehabbing.
• Wide reach: Videos can be shared easily across various online platforms, including websites, social media, and video sharing sites. Failing forward becomes an easier possibility with a video content marketing strategy.
• Enhanced communication: Video marketing can help you connect with your audience, build trust, and establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
• Higher conversion rates: Videos can be persuasive and compelling, leading to increased customer engagement and action, such as a donation for a worthy cause, subscribing to a newsletter, or filling out a form.

In conclusion, video marketing is an essential tool for businesses and marketers to connect with their audience, convey messages effectively, and drive engagement and conversions. It can help you stay ahead of the competition. To provide support for helping native wildlife thrive, make a donation to Petri’s Place.

Pivoting to overcome challenges: How to become unshakably flexible

Failing forward can help you navigate the seas of life while being unshakably flexible. Lolita Walker starts by encouraging the audience to imagine the power of being unshakable yet flexible at the same time. The unshakability results from your roots; it’s the sum of your values, beliefs, and the lessons you’ve learned by linking all these experiences with your community to keep you grounded. Flexibility refers to being mobile and quick to jump to a new mode of operation. When fused together, being unshakably flexible helps you power up in life and soar toward exploring endless possibilities.

Being unshakably flexible in life refers to the ability to adapt and navigate through various challenges, changes, and uncertainties with resilience and grace. It involves maintaining a positive and proactive mindset, being open to new perspectives and possibilities, and staying focused on your goals while being willing to adjust your approach as needed. Here are some key principles that can help you cultivate unshakable flexibility in life:

Embrace change

Change is inevitable in life, and being unshakably flexible requires embracing it rather than resisting it. Recognize that change can bring opportunities for growth and learning, and approach it with an open and curious mindset. 

Let go of what doesn’t serve you.

Be willing to let go of old patterns, beliefs, or expectations that may no longer serve you, and be open to new possibilities and perspectives.

Develop resilience

Cultivate resilience by building a strong support system, practicing self-care, and developing coping mechanisms to manage stress and adversity. See challenges as opportunities to learn and grow rather than as insurmountable obstacles.

Maintain a positive mindset.

Focus on what you can control rather than what you can’t and maintain a positive outlook even in the face of challenges. Practice gratitude, self-compassion, and positive self-talk to cultivate a positive mindset that can help you stay flexible and adaptable.

Be adaptable and open-minded.

Being unshakably flexible requires being adaptable and open-minded. Be willing to consider different perspectives, be open to feedback and constructive criticism, and be flexible in your plans and expectations.

Cultivate self-awareness: 

Develop a deep understanding of yourself, including your strengths, weaknesses, triggers, and patterns. This self-awareness can help you make informed decisions, manage your emotions, and respond to challenges in a more balanced and flexible way.

Conclusion: The importance of pivoting and failing forward in life

Pivoting and failing forward can be challenging, and it’s okay to feel uncertain or overwhelmed at times. Take your time, seek support, and trust yourself to make the best decision with the available resources and information. It’s a process that may require courage and resilience, but it can also lead to personal growth and new opportunities.