A thought experiment for reflection:

Would the idea of living your current life on repeat be horrifying or affirming?

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote on a thought experiment he referred to as Eternal Recurrence:

Imagine a universe in which you would live your current life over and over again, in perpetuity. You would live exactly the same way, down to the tiniest detail.

Would this be horrifying or affirming?

The thought experiment is intended to spark reflection and introspection on your current direction, decisions, and actions:

• What changes would you need to make to your life such that the idea of living it over and over again would be exciting?
• Who would you need to become?
• What attitudes or self-limiting beliefs would you need to scrub away?

If you're feeling reflective, sit down with a blank page and consider the question in depth. You may uncover a few ideas for changes that you can make to improve your life and outlook.

Quote on the importance of preparation:

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." — Sun Tzu

Always remember: The seeds of victory and defeat are sown well before the war is ever waged.

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An idea to celebrate the losses:

The Museum of Failure

The Museum of Failure is a traveling exhibit of failed products and innovations from around the world.

The description of the exhibit states:

Innovation needs failure. All progress, not only technological progress, is built on learning from past failures and mistakes. The museum aims to stimulate productive discussion about failure and inspire us to take meaningful risks.

In other words, our failures play a necessary part in our successes—so they should be celebrated.

I love this idea.

It got me thinking: What if we all built our own Museum of Failure? What if we celebrated our own failures just as much as our successes?

Perhaps through learning to celebrate our failures as part of our journey to success, we would more readily confront our fears, take those leaps, and build the lives we were meant to have.

My Museum of Failure would need to be pretty big:

• I gave up a grand slam on national television in the biggest baseball game of my life. Note: For non-baseball fans, giving up a grand slam is basically the worst thing you can do as a pitcher.
• I've been rejected for more jobs than I can count.
• I've had way more business ideas flop than take off.
• I've lost money on the vast majority of my "active" financial trades (which is why I don't do any active trading anymore!).

Reflecting on it, each one of these failures has made me into who I am today. Each one of these failures is a part of any success that I might achieve in the future.

One of my favorite quotes of all time:

"I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

What would be in your Museum of Failure? Celebrate those losses as a necessary precursor to your future wins.

Visual on the power of tiny actions:

This letter from a Reddit post hit me hard...

Every single person you encounter is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. Your one tiny action can create powerful ripples that extend far beyond yourself. Create more ripples.

Video sharing a public failure:

​My Biggest Failure So Far...​

Furthering this week's idea theme of embracing failure, my dear friend Ali Abdaal shared this video that publicly breaks down a recent business failure.

I love the fact that Ali has 5 million subscribers, but was willing to publicly own and deconstruct a failure so that others could learn from it.

There's a lesson in there...