By Linda Feinholz

It’s not only at Halloween that we show up in costume rather than our authentic selves. From a very early age we’ve been trained to hang on to the masks we wear. We got messages to put a smile on our face, don’t cry, say ‘please,’ ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ when we don’t mean it.

So we put on labels like ‘professional’, ‘boss’ and ‘successful’ and then construct a mask we think presents that to the world. And as business owners and entrepreneurs, those masks don’t serve us well in the long run.

We lose track of who we are and what we really want for ourselves as we posture our successes whether or not we feel we’ve achieved them.

We miss learning how to cope with disappointments and how to take action to build on unexpected results of our efforts.

We miss out on new relationships and information that could rapidly shift us from failure to success.

We miss learning how to “Fail Up.”

So here are 7 tips for creating High Payoff Failure and using it to accelerate your Success!

1 – Set Your Vision
In order to experience Success you have to know what it looks like. No one else can set your Vision for you. That means taking the time to create a rich Vision of what you want, in a project, in business, in life. So set aside 10 minutes, grab a piece of paper and something to write with, and in 15 sentences describe the success you want 20 years from now.

2 – Unleash It
You’ve written it down. Now announce it. Stand in a comfortable place and read it out loud. Then let it go. Get your attention on the actions you’ll take to do your part to achieve it. Even 1-hour a day will do. Make that hour fully focused on developing your skills, your idea, and moving your plan forward and by the end of a year you’ll have mastered a new skill, moved your idea into the real world, and put hundreds of hours into making it come true.

3 – Consider Each Failure Market Research
The best-kept secret of Success is that it’s built on Failures – lots of them! The faster you fail, the quicker you are finding out what ideas, plans and actions you should spend less time on. The quicker you recognize what won’t get you to your Vision, the faster you can adjust your efforts to focus them on what will succeed.

4 – Compete For Failure
If your attention is on ‘what others are doing’ or ‘someone else has done it’ as an excuse for waiting to take action – you’ve missed the point. They’re failing and picking themselves up and continuing on toward success. They’re laying the groundwork for your own path on their budget instead of yours. Watch them so you can leverage their hours of effort and dollars spent by learning from their failures so your energy can be spent on different failures on the path to success.

5 – Ease Your Way Forward
People who became ‘overnight successes’ will tell you – They spent hundreds of hours a year for many years creating that success. And they often did it while holding down another job. If your Vision is in a new path, dedicate relaxed, decisive time to it. Put uninterrupted time on your calendar daily and weekly to focus on it, and you’ll be able to announce your own instant success as well.

6 – Success Calls For Celebration ~ And So Does Failure!
Make sure you don’t get so buried in the tasks that are building each step from failure to success that you don’t appreciate the learning along the way. Each of those ‘Lessons Learned’ hold valuable information and deserve to be recognized promptly so that you and everyone else on your team recognizes their value. Then you’ll all climb back into action with the attitude that says “Bring it on!” and keeps you headed towards Success.

7 – Surprise Yourself
Remember how you unleashed your Vision? One of the most important reasons is so that you don’t micro-manage it. Failure will make you pause and step back. When you shift your attention, you’ll be able to see that the universe is constantly providing you with encounters that lead to your Vision – often in unexpected opportunities and new people crossing your path. Keep your attention out in the world where those amazing encounters can offer you new ideas and even quicker routes to your Vision.

Now take off your mask and go Fail your way to Success!

Let me know how you do with it, and the results you create.

© 2008 Linda Feinholz  Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" If you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, boost your professional and personal results and have more fun, get her FREE audio mini-course "7 Quick & Simple Steps to Increase Your Focus, Ease Your Effort & Accelerate Your Results" and the free weekly newsletter The Spark! Visit http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com