Break the Rule Avoid Mistakes - First Challenge

Name Your Failures

Welcome to your first challenge

You had enough curiosity and openness of mind to take the Rule Finder Quiz, and perhaps you’ve discovered that you’ve been following the rule, Avoid Mistakes. Now you’re ready to explore what you can do about it.

You’re in the right place.

Humans are a curious and inventive species.

We’re hardwired from the start to experiment, explore, risk, and put absolutely anything into our mouths, including spinach and broccoli. As a result, we learn and grow at a remarkable rate in the first years of life, with exception of those children who eat more than 20% of their sandbox.

The curious part of us is always ready to try something new.

But that all slows down and for some of us eventually grinds to a complete halt as we’re taught that getting the answers right on the school test is more important than learning new things and gaining life experience.

Once it dawns on us that looking good is the goal and that mistakes are not tolerated, we become easy targets for the rule Avoid Mistakes, and gladly adopt it as our “winning” strategy.

The problem is, learning and growth are then virtually eliminated from our lives. Creativity, play, and innovation take a back seat to a regular paycheck and it becomes impossible to find the unique success path that we were meant to discover and then serve with joyful purpose.

Want to break the rule Avoid Mistakes and be a better innovator?

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Here’s the Challenge

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Name your failures

This simple challenge for breaking the rule Avoid Mistakes will help you move past your need for unerring performance and embrace intelligent risk. As an exercise in self-awareness it will help to shift your focus from avoiding mistakes to exploration and discovery.

Pull out your favorite writing tool to engage this quick exercise.

• Describe one mistake in your life you’re glad that you made.

• Identify one mistake you’re currently afraid of making.

• Name one thing you haven’t tried, but you’d be proud to have attempted, even if you fail at it.

Give yourself the time and space to go into as much detail as you wish in answering each of these.

There is no right response in terms of length, content, or clarity. Simply let yourself explore the exercise and record what arises.

If you’re reading this on the go and want to work with the challenge later, just use the share button to send a copy of the challenge to your own email address.

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Want more challenges like this?

If you enjoyed this first challenge and you’d like to see a few more sample challenges for breaking the rule Avoid Mistakes and becoming a better innovator—just click the button below.

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Welcome again, and if I can be of any help, please let me know by replying to your welcome email or any other email sent to you from Break a Rule.

Rick Lewis
Professional Misbehaver &
Break a Rule Founder

“Mistakes are the only universal form of originality.”

-Mason Cooley